


Fused

by TheMoments (TBs_LMC)



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alec Ryder - Freeform, Assassin - Freeform, BAMF Gil Brodie, BAMF Jaal, BAMF Reyes Vidal, BAMF Sara Ryder, BAMF Scott Ryder, Biotics (Mass Effect), Character Death, Charlatan Is King, Davis to the Rescue, Dismemberment, Enemies, Explicit Language, F/M, Fear, Habitat 7 is called Ryder 1 now, Heavy Angst, Honoring Alec Ryder, Kadara, Kadara Port, Kett, Kidnapping, Love Conquers All, M/M, Mages, Magic, Making Love, Marriage Proposal, My Scott Doesn't Look Like Default Scott, Outlaws, POV Reyes Vidal, POV Scott Ryder, Pathfinder Is Savior, Plot Twists, Post-Canon, Reapers, Rescue Missions, Revelations, Roekaar, Romance, Sacrifice, Scott Ryder Speaks Fluent Spanish Because He's Smart Like That, Secrets, Sexy Hover Car, Sleeping Together, Somewhat Explicit Sex, Spells & Enchantments, Spending Time Together, Superheroes, Tempest - Freeform, True Love, Truth, Unchecked Biotic, Vanguard (Mass Effect), Visiting Monuments, Well-Deserved Getaway, Why Question The Inevitable, learning each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 19
Words: 43,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TBs_LMC/pseuds/TheMoments
Summary: The first time Reyes Vidal heard SAM’s voice inside his mind, it scared the piss out of him because it was unexpected. Then in the heat of a battle they seemed destined to lose, it scared the piss out of him because it meant he was Scott Ryder’s only hope for survival, and he was too far away to get to him in time.Months after Meridian, two men’s newfound, unexpected, and all-consuming relationship faces its greatest test yet – of will, of technology, of fortitude and of love. Friends become enemies, some friends become closer, and some of them are forever changed by what goes down.
Relationships: Davis Qar/Gil Brodie, Gil Brodie & Male Ryder | Scott, Jaal Ama Darav & Male Ryder | Scott, Jaal Ama Darav/Female Ryder | Sara, Jaal Ama Darav/Ryder, Male Ryder | Scott/Reyes Vidal, Ryder/Reyes Vidal
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9





	1. Free At Last

**Author's Note:**

> “Nobody ever fell in love without being a little brave.” - Shepard

It had been three months since they’d seen each other.

Though the outposts were up and running, though Meridian was coming along nicely as the new home for so many different species, there were still innumerable things that the Pathfinders needed to do. Thankfully there were now the asari and turian ones as well as Sara, but impossibly it seemed there was even more work for Scott to do than there had been before, when he was the one and only Pathfinder – the one and only person, period – standing between success and failure for the Initiative and, if all truths were laid out on the table, the entire Angaran population.

The two men talked often – thank the gods of the galaxy for long-distance communications being possible. And for email, most especially, where in the private sanctuary of the written word, their relationship had grown arguably stronger than it would’ve had they been feeling their way around its edges in person. After all, it was much easier to make confessions and reveal deep, dark secrets from the safety of sealing them away from view than it was if you had to look your love in the eye as you explained some of your more horrific deeds.

The kiss in the cave…the storage closet at the victory celebration…those had been their last two times together and had involved a great deal of petting, feeling up and kissing. Hands everywhere. A mutual explosion in the form of quick, desperate hand jobs. Both wanted more. Neither knew what to do about the reality that didn’t even give them breathing room to contemplate the logistics of ‘more’ regardless how either meant to define it.

Reyes, the new King of Kadara. Scott, the King of the Heleus Cluster for all intents and purposes. Reyes, running everything from shadow. Scott, the blazing-hot knight in shining _Tempest_ valiantly providing assistance, compassion and solutions from planet to planet, settlement to settlement, person to person. Selflessly, Reyes worked tirelessly to free his planet of every kind of bad guy and crime possible, to make it the shining example of how Scott Ryder could singlehandedly turn the worst criminal backwater desert into a living, breathing, thriving, crime-free community. Selflessly, Scott gave more than everything he had inside him to remain the symbol he’d never wanted to be, but had – through the sheer force of who he was as a human being – become.

Reyes belonged to himself. Scott belonged to everyone _but_ himself.

All they wanted, when lying in their respective beds alone half a galaxy apart composing and reading and re-reading emails and short-burst messages and picturing the other’s face, lips, eyes…was each other. For both, it was becoming a distracting obsession. For both, that kind of distraction could have deadly consequences.

At last, Scott could take no more. When Tann tried to send him out to talk to an outcast mining camp on Vaar, one of the few pre-Reyes-in-charge outposts that remained operating as Sloane Kelly had originally set them up, Scott flat-out refused. “I’ve been going at it nonstop for over a year,” he’d told the director in a defeated voice. “Lexi and SAM agree that if I don’t get some downtime, I may not survive upcoming hostile encounters simply due to slow response time.”

It wasn’t easy for him to admit something like this. But it was easier than continuing to pine painfully for a man he didn’t have a label for yet but desperately wanted to move into the position of partner, in every sense of the word.

His pleas and some stern words to Tann from Lexi resulted in Scott being granted one month. A whole month, negotiated in ways that involved threats, yelling and politicking up the wazoo. In the end, Ryder didn’t give a crap. Sara was to take over the _Tempest_ while Scott’s entire crew – save Kallo and Gil – also indulged in some shore leave. Both the pilot and the engineer had refused to let anyone else fly or fix their ‘baby’ and so it was that Scott found himself being dropped off at Kadara Port by the _Tempest_ while Vetra and Drack completed some transactions and Sara worked with Keema to identify anything that the Initiative could still help with, that the Charlatan was having trouble pinning down – including the remaining outposts, such as the one on Vaar.

They could’ve asked the Charlatan, of course, but he had also suddenly decided upon a vacation. Keema wasn’t fooled and she was one of only two people anywhere near Kadara that knew he wasn’t just another smuggler. She couldn’t help the grin as he sent her a short-burst message that he was departing the planet.

A transport was waiting, piloted and co-piloted by two angara whose main job was to transfer questionably sourced parts from Point A to Point B. Point B, interestingly enough, was also the place that two certain Kings were heading. Together. And thus they became part of the _Inalaara_ ’s payload.

Breathless recognition, first, when eyes met eyes. Knowing they needed to not provide a heads-up display that would get the whole Port talking. Nobody but Scott’s crew, Sara, Keema and Umi knew Reyes’ true identity, but everyone agreed that people witnessing their savior carrying on like a giddy schoolboy with a known thief, murderer and smuggler was a tad too tarnishing for the Initiative jewel’s reputation at this delicate point in the proceedings.

The ship’s seating brought no privacy, being directly behind the pilot and co-pilot. Tashay and Kahvehryn, two females Ryder swore were probably intimate they way that miniscule touches passed between them time to time – though given how demonstrative angarans were, he admitted to himself that he could be mistaken. Reyes easily kept up casual conversation, though Scott noted the tightness around his eyes. Likewise, Reyes noted that Scott’s muscles were so tense they may have been shatterable had someone whacked him in the shoulders hard enough during the ride.

At last Kahvehryn announced that they were approaching the planet once called Habitat 7 – the one where Alec Ryder had given his life to save his son – but had since been renamed Ryder in honor of the first human Pathfinder to explore, and perish, in the Heleus Cluster.

Reyes had admitted surprise when Scott suggested going there, thinking it would have been too painful a place for him to visit. But Scott had said there was something he wanted to show him – the very first Vault. And the monument he and Sara had commissioned and unveiled to celebrate their father’s life and honor his sacrifice. And, since Alec had gotten the Vault running there so long ago, Scott truly was interested to see how colonization and farming efforts were coming. How different the planet was now compared to the day he and his father’s team had first set foot on it.

Plus there was a very remote and very secret place he’d spent no small fortune getting up and running for this specific getaway.

They said their good-byes to the _Inalaara_ pilots, slung their packs over their shoulders and stood there on the landing platform looking at each other bewilderedly. “I can’t believe we’re here,” Reyes finally said.

Scott cracked a smile. “Me either. I keep expecting SAM to tell me someone’s attacking somewhere and I have to go save the galaxy again.”

“I know the feeling. It seems that no sooner have I cleared one rebel camp or Outlaw stronghold than another rears its ugly head in places I’d already cleaned out.” Reyes sighed. “I think when I said I wanted to be someone, I didn’t quite think through the consequences of actually succeeding in that endeavor.”

With an unexpected laugh, Scott clapped his…flirt-buddy?..on the shoulder. “Come on. There’s a bar in there. Let’s wet our whistles and then I’ll show you the Vault and the monument.”

“Lead the way.”


	2. The Monument

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyes and Scott discover that it doesn't take a whole lot to get them both worked up. Later, Scott shares with Reyes the place where it all began for him in Andromeda, and Reyes appreciates so much more now.

Two drinks and two sandwiches later, Reyes picked up the tab, claiming it was payback for the first time he’d stiffed Scott…also the first time they’d met.

“Yeah, why _did_ you leave me with that tab?” Scott asked as they slung their packs over their shoulders and headed for the bar’s exit.

“Company policy,” Reyes replied in that way he had of making everything he was talking about sound vaguely sexual. “I offer you a drink to see how amenable you are to me, specifically. If you take it or if you don’t answers that question, which tells me which track to take to get the point where I’ll be able to get whatever I want out of you.”

Scott gave an amused half-grin. “And the tab?”

The doors swished open and they stepped out into a balmy evening with a light breeze and lots of conversation from people scattered here and there throughout the port area.

“Ah, that has to do with gentlemanly honor.”

“So the fact that I paid it meant..?”

Reyes stopped mid-step, turned and faced him. “That you were a man of pure heart. Someone,” he continued, “that I would normally have taken a great deal of advantage of.”

Scott cocked his head at him. “Why didn’t you?”

Managing to – mostly – keep a straight face, Reyes replied, “Unbeknownst to me, I wasn’t quite at the top of my game from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“Ah,” Scott acknowledged, taking a step closer. They were chest-to-chest now, he ensconced within his self-built remnant-based armor and Reyes wearing his light traveling armor that resembled clothes but held up well against gunfire. “So I was in the process of decrypting you before I even knew you needed decrypting.”

A startled laugh and Scott felt very pleased with himself. Reyes had never smiled as much as Scott thought he should, given how such a look on the man’s face tended to take his breath away. Never mind what a full, hearty, honest laugh did to his insides. Just like it was doing now.

For endless moments they just stood there staring at each other until someone jostled Scott from behind, apologized in angaran and brought them back into the moment.

“If we keep standing here staring at each other like statues, we’re going to get run over,” Scott murmured as Reyes licked his lips. He shivered seeing Reyes’ tongue, then took a deep breath to center himself. They had a month. An entire month. What was another couple of hours? “Come on. We can rent a small transport over here.”

Within ten minutes the men and their gear were aboard a two-seater hover vehicle – the only kind of transport small enough to use on the pathways of the Ryder planet – and Scott had programmed into the VI running it their destination. Which left them some quiet moments. Eventually, Reyes was the first to break a silence that wasn’t so much awkward as it was filled with several different types of tension.

“Scott,” he said softly, reaching out across the small divide separating their two seats. Scott instinctively reached out and they clasped their hands together. “I find it unnerving how much I’ve missed you.”

“Really?”

Reyes nodded, eyes glued to their hands. He quickly pulled his away, amid Scott’s grumbled protests, then proceeded to remove his glove. Scott unsealed his from his suit and their hands met again, this time flesh to flesh. This first touch of skin rendered them both speechless for nearly a full minute.

“I have trouble concentrating when I’m trying to write reports,” Scott confessed.

“My mind wanders when Keema’s discussing the Charlatan’s state of affairs.” The side of Rey’s mouth crooked upwards. “I wasn’t lying about that cave incident shooting my ability to focus all to hell.”

A huffed-out laugh. “I look at a tree or a cliff or a waterfall whether I’m on Aya or Eos or Havarl, and it physically aches that you’re not there to see it with me. To experience the beauty, to share it.”

A deep, shaky breath. “I barely go to my room in Tartarus anymore because all I can seem to do while I’m there is relive our dancing. Our…kisses. The way our hands explored that night.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat.

Scott swallowed hard, only then realizing that the two of them were squeezing each other’s hands almost unbearably tightly. “I keep praying to smell you. The scent that means Reyes Vidal, and no one else.”

The smuggler’s breath hitched, eyes opened wide. “I can’t get the storage closet out of my mind. How relieved I was that…that you were safe. Hot and alive and squirming flesh.”

“I can’t get the feel of your skin out of thoughts. Smooth, hot, slick with sweat.”

“What are we doing here?” Reyes whispered.

“Getting hot and bothered,” Scott replied quickly.

“No, yes, I know that, I mean…” Reyes squeezed his hand harder. “On this planet. Together.”

“Finding out what we can become,” Scott answered directly. Simply.

“I think I already know. At least, perhaps, my heart does.”

The corners of Scott’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Mine too.”

The hovercraft chose that moment to signal that they had reached their destination. Scott started a bit, drawing a chuckle from Reyes as the men reluctantly released each other’s hands and worked their fingers for a bit to ease the stiffness leftover from the rigid hold they’d had on each other. Their gloves went back on and their eyes smoldered in a way that brought pink to the tips of Scott’s ears and flame to Reyes’ face.

With a small ‘ahem’ to clear his throat, Scott opened the hovercraft door and stepped out. Reyes followed, and Scott keyed the security lock code to his omni tool so their stuff would be safe inside the vehicle while they perused the monument and Vault, both of which were under guard and off-limits to everyone. Well, everyone but a Ryder.

The guards positioned next to the statue of Alec Ryder, which stood twenty feet in front of the Vault entrance, snapped to when they realized who they were seeing. They saluted, and Scott returned the gesture.

Reyes looked up at the life-sized statue on a small pedestal. He quietly walked around the base of it, which was an actual Habitat 7 rock upon which Alec would stand for eternity, and read the story from a digitized plaque of what happened right here, on this spot, a little over a year earlier. When it got to the part where Alec came upon his son, helmet smashed, and went on to describe how he’d given his own helmet to his boy and transferred Pathfinder responsibilities to him without hesitation, Reyes felt his eyes mist over. Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed Scott’s hand.

“This makes me realize that I almost never even knew you existed,” Reyes said softly, eyes traveling up and up and up the statue until they reached Alec’s face. “I think I will have to thank this man every day for the rest of my life for not allowing that to be the case.”

“You know, he saved me so when my mom is eventually curable and revived, she won’t awaken to having lost one of her children.”

Reyes squeezed his hand and pulled him closer. “He wouldn’t have made you the Pathfinder regardless, unless he thought the job belonged with you.”

“That’s true,” Scott acknowledged. “He could easily have ordered SAM to transfer to the implant in Cora before he died or heck, even to Sara, coma or no.” He sighed. “Everything about my relationship with him is so complicated. It always was.” He shook his head and looked right into Reyes’ eyes. “I want us to be simple. Can we just _be_? Please?”

“Oh, what I feel for you is not simple, my friend,” Reyes replied. Scott tried to look away but he brought his hand to the man’s cheek and pulled his gaze right back to him. “But our relationship will always be simple. It will always be based on…” Reyes swallowed three times in a row. After all, he wasn’t so much that great with things like relationships either. “How about, on love?”

On impulse, Scott lurched forward and kissed him, mouth closed, lips softly pressing together. Then with a smile, he nudged his face to the side, slid his cheek along Reyes’ cheek and whispered into his ear, “Looks like I actually have the _best_ taste in men.”

Reyes blushed. Scott grinned. Hands still clasped, the latter pulled the former toward the Vault opening where four more guards were stationed, with weapons that would probably make Primus herself think twice about attacking. Never mind the turrets that were ready at a moment’s notice to do serious damage to any would-be invaders.

“Ah, so this was how you knew that you could change the climate of Eos,” Reyes marveled as they walked across the threshold into the Vault proper.

“And how I knew about the cleansing thing that happens after you reset a Vault. That’s what blasted Dad and I out. That’s how I basically nearly died my way into being the human Pathfinder. I suspect if Sara had been here with him – if it’d been my pod damaged on the _Hyperion_ rather than hers – he would’ve transferred the responsibility to her here on this spot. She’s my twin, after all.”

“I would love to meet her sometime.”

“Oh, you will. It’s just that while I’m away she becomes me and when we’re both engaged in Pathfinder duties at the same time, well, it means we’re never in the same place. _I_ barely see her!”

“Is there…I have often heard that twins have some sort of…supernatural bond. Do you share this?” Reyes asked as the men approached the location where Alec had held his hand aloft and thanks to SAM, had shown himself and Scott the very stars.

“Kind of. We always seem to know what each other’s thinking when we’re together in person. We, I don’t know, finish each other’s sentences. We rely on each other as rocks. It’s an unquestionable fact that I don’t really ever even think about, that if I turn to Sara, I know always without fail that she’s there for me, and the same goes for her with me.”

“I’m envious of that bond, I must admit.”

Scott yanked on Reyes’ hand, using physics to reel him in. He trapped his body close with his free arm. Unclasped his hand to run a finger along Reyes’ jaw. “You have it, Reyes.”

“I…do?”

Scott nodded, inching his face ever nearer. They could breathe each other’s breaths now. “At least, I hope you know…that I have your back, always. Like I did with the Roekaar job. Like I did with Zia. Like I did with Sloane Kelly.”

As if a door had opened and allowed… _something_ …something _titillating_ …to cascade over him, Reyes shivered slightly, eyes bright as they searched Scott’s. “As I have yours, _cariño_.”

“ _Lo prometes_?”

“ _Sin falta_ ,” Reyes breathed as their lips crashed together.


	3. Crashing Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott and Reyes finally arrive at the place that will be their hideaway for the next month, and inevitably the slow spiral toward each other that began the moment Reyes laid eyes on Scott at Kralla's Song, sees them crash epically together in ways neither expected but that both soon realize they can no longer live without.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one long, continuous lovemaking event with a bunch of feels. Fairly explicit, but not as much as some other fanfics I've seen. :-)

It took just over an hour for the hovercraft to get them from the Vault to what would be their private getaway for the next month. “My God, Ryder, you don’t do anything halfway, do you?” Reyes asked as they exited the hovercraft. Both men grabbed their packs and slung them over their shoulders in unison before SAM locked the hovercraft without being asked to.

They stood in front of a small but big enough little complex of prefab build, like the ones placed at the outposts he’d created. On the ground floor was a large living room-like area, a kitchen, a bathroom and another room that contained electronic equipment such as Initiative terminals, Remtech monitors, a lab bench and even a SAM node. Next to that was what amounted to a small gym with a universal weightlifting machine, a treadmill and a stationary bike. Then upstairs was a large bedroom – only one, Reyes noted with a smile – with a huge bed, a couch and a couple of overstuffed chairs, and finally a bathroom containing a very large and luxurious whirlpool tub in addition to a shower, a toilet and two sinks.

“You spoil me, Pathfinder.”

“Sometimes I’m a good guy to know,” Scott stated with pride as the men reached the top step, dropped their packs on the bedroom floor and then acted much more uneasily than either could believe they were acting.

“Why is this so difficult?” Scott finally asked.

“Because I’m terrified of fucking it up,” Reyes responded automatically, and then realized what he’d said and ducked his head.

“So am I,” Scott admitted.

“Because this actually matters,” Reyes added.

“But you know, I don’t think we could fuck this up even if we tried. After all, we’ve survived death, near-death, archons, outlaws, uprisings, SAM problems, caves, Charlatans…need I say more?”

“You can say whatever you like. I would happily listen to you read the dictionary.”

Scott burst out laughing. “Funny, I was thinking the same thing.” Reyes winked. Scott blushed and shook his head. “I really need to get out of this armor right now, and then I think maybe a rest in the bath to bleed some of the past year’s tension away.” He smiled at Reyes. “Care to be my plus-one?”

“Are you asking me out?” Reyes purred.

“No,” Scott said softly, a suggestive smile gracing his face. “Asking you to stay in. With me. For about a month.”

“Sold.”

Slowly their gear, clothing, weapons, it all came off, piece by piece. Neither were purposely trying for provocative, but it was as if both were performing the most sensual striptease in the universe, only because their laser focus on one another started wiping away awkward and replacing it with _need_ desire _want_ heat _love_.

For the first time since they’d met at Kralla’s they stood before each other as naked as the day they’d each been born. Long moments passed and rather than becoming even more entrenched in discomfort, the longer their eyes roamed, the more comfortable they both became. For Scott, years of athletics, locker rooms and the Alliance had made him easy around other nude men in spite of the fact that he’d also harbored secret attractions to a good number of them along the way.

For Reyes, surrounded as he’d been by gang members and military men and jock pilots his entire life, it was also something he found easy to wade through, though he admitted privately to himself that he’d never seen anyone who looked quite like the Pathfinder. His shape was mesmerizing, taut, as if drawn to perfection by a God that Reyes didn’t even believe in. Scott seemed built to kick ass in ways he probably hadn’t even discovered for himself yet. Built also to take an awful lot of physical punishment in the field before he succumbed. Reyes, though no slouch in the muscle department himself, and way stronger than he looked, felt positively waif-like next to the man’s broad shoulders and muscular thighs.

Miles of nearly bronze skin was laid bare before him as his eyes feasted on what was becoming his, like salivating over a living, breathing statue. Piercing blue eyes cut through his very carefully built-up defenses as if they were diamonds. Lips screamed to be kissed, nipped, wrapped around his dick. Hands pleaded to be held, fingers entwined. A cock begged to be touched, licked, sucked and pumped and Reyes moaned from the depths of his being at the thought.

They crashed together like satellites in a death spiral that had finally succumbed to the inevitability of losing themselves to each other. The resulting explosion, as spectacular and beautiful as it was deadly to them both, meant hours and hours and hours passed where nothing and no one existed in any galaxy or reality, save the man whose very name meant _kings_ and the man whose surname had become synonymous with _savior_.

Hands could not reach everywhere at the same time, though they tried desperately to linger and touch each inch of flesh. Impatience warred with desire. Need quashed lingering fear. Love engaged in a deadly battle with reality. First, desperate rutting. Mouths trying to taste it all at the same time. Hands grasping, greedy, curious, carefree. Whispered wisps of willingness, a learned, labored lexicon of love’s ethereal beginning.

Scott lost his male virginity to his _rey_ and Reyes, for the first time in his life, lost his heart in its entirety, willingly letting it slip from his grasp to be chained, jailed, held, absorbed by this man, this accidental Pathfinder, this one and only brightest star in Andromeda. And yet both gained so very, very much more than they gave, filled and filling, open and accepting, physically painful in its perfection.

Stalwart, true, secrets falling away, floating, fleeing in the face of fears confronted. Eyes wide open, climaxes pulling truth from souls, promises from minds, murmured mumblings of mythical power from mouths. As each minute progressed and each secret revealed itself, unfurled into the stark light of their complexity of existence, one man grew more entrenched in the other. One more inextricably intertwined with the other, in figurative and literal ways, all ways and always.

Sticky, hot, sweating, swirling thoughts and feelings, sweetness building up and exploding infinitely, surrounding, silly and sure, stifling and freeing both. Laughter and tears, hopes and fears. Romance and lust, dark and light, shadow and sun, yin and yang, life and death, facing an endless, wondrous journey _together_.

As dawn broke the next morning the men also broke, exhaustion robbing their bodies of any capability besides falling into place, heads on pillows, shoulder to shoulder, heaving chests and panting breaths, gorged and stimulated still as though the feedback loop, once begun, could never be stopped, sated, solved.

Scott turned, needy. Reyes turned, greedy. Neither willing to end it, to cease touch, to let the other go even one inch further than plastered together. Face to face on their sides, eyes barely able to remain open, breaths required to commingle as if _breath of life_ meant suffocation without the other’s heat to compensate. Hands rose between them grasping, clutching, squeezing, held. Legs entangled, no endings and no beginnings, just togethers and sweat and sex and aches and beauty. Lips touching. Whispering deeply into the other’s very soul.

“ _Mi Corazón_.”

“Ah, Rey.” Scott sighed on his name. Smiled. “I love you.”

Reyes’ eyes popped open. Looked into the blue ones he’d already happily drowned inside of. Drowned and been resurrected in ways he’d never believed possible. “ _Te amo, precioso, también_.”

They drifted off to sleep, dreams never coming close to new reality.

* * *

_How it has hurt_ , Scott mused as he awakened sometime later to find his…lover? Lover, perhaps…still sleeping soundly next to him. It has hurt beyond words he can find in multiple languages to _not_ be able to have this. No concerns for safety, no worries for self-preservation. No one demanding every moment of their attention on completely separate issues that all pointed somehow to that far-distant goal they shared so fervently, passionately, of peace and prosperity for all.

Hidden from the knowledge that at any second somebody will call needing a world to be moved on its axis again. That another will send a request for an entire species to be rescued one more time. That yet another requires blankets for the cold, food for the hungry, shoes for the needy, credits for the downtrodden. Removal of threats, gangs, violence. Antibiotics and water. Salvage to fix ships and radios. Correction of past wrongs, justice meted, safety ensured, soldiers cared for, lives preserved.

All of this and more, Reyes gives to the people of Kadara, Initiative included. All of this and more, Scott gives to the Heleus Cluster, Kadara included. Yet the personal loss and pain both men endure to rescue, to save, to keep the dreams of their people alive, threatens often to rip Scott’s heart from his chest, ribcage and guts and soul along with it. His breathing stutters.

He reaches out, eyes wet, gently brushing at hair that’s fallen from styled perfection onto a smooth, unlined forehead. For all he knows about Reyes Vidal, there is more he knows nothing about. He has no idea what the man had done for his entire life in the Milky Way before the cryo process put them all to sleep, Reyes first being on the _Nexus_ and Scott later on _Hyperion_ with his family. The Pathfinder’s own life is an open book by necessity. Golden Boy Ryder, though pariah a galaxy away given association by surname alone, can have no secrets in this one, after all.

And yet he does. His is the biggest secret of them all: that he is madly, desperately, fully in love with, belongs to, would both kill and die for, the mysterious and unknown Charlatan; that it is the King of Shadows who lays next to him slumbering, secure, safe, trusting Scott in every way imaginable. But why? And how? What did Reyes do before Andromeda that he has wanted and needed and taken and given to and from his own species’ Pathfinder?

Here, Reyes smuggles, information or cargo, choosing the side that means less casualties, choosing the allies who will further the altruism hidden beneath layers of scoundrel. It’s almost like being the Shadow Broker of Heleus, Scott reflects as his index finger travels down Reyes’ cheek to his jaw line, which he traces from beneath one ear, all the way around his chin to beneath the other. He cannot get enough of this man. No matter how long he lives. He knows this. It twists in his gut that no amount of time will _ever_ be enough, even were they to live fully for the next six hundred years. No hour, minute, second, will _ever_ be taken for granted.

That Reyes is capable of anything and everything is without question. He thinks of it all except when he doesn’t and it seems _that_ only happens when Scott is there to be his backup. Zia’s trickery comes to mind. Why would Reyes reach out to _him_ when he had so many soldiers at his disposal? Just to see him again? Had he been as affected as Scott had after their first job together? After the flirting that Scott purposely didn’t try to hide, so smitten was he?

The team who’d been there with Reyes to back him up against Sloane and then take over the port, when Reyes hadn’t a clue Scott would be accompanying her. It’s as if the vast new universe they now call home is ensuring that if the Charlatan _does_ slip up, the man who will forever belong to him heart and soul, will save him. That’s what Scott does, right? Saves everyone? Can he save himself, though? And Reyes? Can he keep them together in spite of the everyday dangers to their very lives?

His finger travels to the hollow of Reyes’ throat, then along his left collarbone. Returns to center and glides along the right. Uses the curled fingers of that same hand to push the single sheet draped over Reyes’ chest down and down as his finger traces his sternum, out to each pec, circling and then bumping over dark nipples, watching them pebble in response.

In no time Scott’s hard again, desperate, wanting the ability to join with this man in every sense, the lack of knowledge about his past adding that much more beauty and allure and mystery to his remarkable bedfellow. He’s a puzzle and a magnet, both a black hole and the brightest sun in Scott’s universe.

No more secrets. Scott knew if he asked Reyes would confess anything, no matter how bad or good it might be. Would spend days, months, years, recounting every single solitary second of his life to date. And yet that’s not what Scott had ever wanted. He just _wanted_ and furthermore, he needed his _rey_ to trust him not only because he wanted that trust, but because he wanted Reyes to know he _could_. That someone out there had his back no matter what.

_"Thank you."_

_"For what?"_

_"For accepting me."_

Scott didn’t cross dark space only to question what he or Reyes or anyone else he knew had done more than six hundred years earlier. He accepted Reyes Vidal as he was now, here in Andromeda by his side, in his bed, beautiful skin sliding sweat-slicked against his own.

And so, free to finally be able to do such thing in this month-long break from life, Scott leaned over his _corazón_ and pressed their mouths together, moved his lips, kissed gently and very nearly chastely. Kissed his way up to Reyes’ cheekbone. Kissed one eyelid. The other. Across his forehead. Down his nose to its tip. Back to his lips.

* * *

Reyes responded, rising to wakefulness along with his dick, feeling more than he ever remembered feeling in his chest. In his heart. In his soul. It contracted and expanded painfully, causing him to gasp. His fingers slid into Scott’s hair, pulling gently as he licked his way into his _salvador_ ’s mouth, keening in a deep, body-wrenching way like a rumble through his chest that vibrated the entire depth and breadth of Scott’s body. Tongues tasted and danced, lips connected and moved, hands explored wantonly until at last the need for oxygen pulled them apart long enough to inhale.

“You are so gentle with me sometimes,” Reyes panted, lips kissed to swollen fullness, pupils blown wide as his own fingers caressed the side of Scott’s head, tracing the shell of his ear, pressing gently at the join of jaw to skull to ease the subconscious teeth-grinding pain Scott sometimes felt.

* * *

There were no words Scott could find and so he simply dipped his head to kiss the man again and did his best to show, since ‘tell’ wasn’t working really well at the moment. Reyes rolled them, sheet falling away, moved his hips languidly, their undulation an art form Scott could feel like the most sensual of rumbas. He wondered if Romantic Reyes did things like that, sexually charged Latin dirty dances, dicks grinding together with hips, and reasoned he must, given how he was currently moving against him. Something to file away for asking later when he could string a sentence together that didn’t involve whispered staccatos being torn from his throat like, “Please,” and “Yes,” and “Reyes.”

And he’d said those things out loud so Reyes pulled back, straddling his hips, asking, “How do you manage to make my name sound like a prayer?”

“Found my religion,” Scott quipped breathlessly.

Reyes groaned but it was much more of a sex-crazed moan. “That’s just as bad as me being hacked.”

“Or just as good,” Ryder replied as he sat up straight, felt Reyes’ legs come around his waist until his heels were touching Scott’s butt and they were locked in something like a tantric sex embrace.

* * *

Rocking together, eyes closed as something approaching ecstasy threatened to consume them, Reyes rose up, seated himself on Scott’s fully-hard cock and then slowly, slowly eased himself down. There was nothing quite so beautiful and perfect to either man than the sounds of pleasure they elicited from one another, and all thought was lost to time and space as the room filled with their whispers, cries, echoes of things before and things yet to come, fearsome love and loyalty and devotion that blindsided both, shocked both, left them without explanations for _why_. Everything they couldn’t say, wouldn’t dare yet attempt to wrap words around, poured over them like standing beneath one of Aya’s magnificent waterfalls.

When Scott was spent it was the King’s turn to fill his lover’s body, take it, mark it, stamp it as his own, claim what he had never dreamed could be his to have and hold for always until the moment he’d first held Scott in his arms, touched fingertips to his face, looked into his eyes.

That first kiss, oh, how he moaned now as he remembered Scott’s diversionary tactic when the danger of an approaching guard had caught them off-balance, how it had taken Reyes by complete surprise, shot a bolt of electricity straight to his groin, how he’d wanted nothing more than to forget any and all decorum or the identity of the man before him, and just strip him naked, ravishing him right there among Sloane Kelly’s possessions.

Not yet twenty-four hours had they been alone and already, so much empty space had been filled. With so much more waiting for its turn. Reyes arched his back, entire body on fire as his climax claimed all coherence and stole his very sanity away.


	4. Two Weeks Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two weeks pass in the blink of an eye, and Scott's brain enters crisis mode as he realizes that means they only have two weeks left.

Bouts of waking mixed with bouts of lovemaking. Bouts of sleeping mixed with bouts of eating. One could not leave the bed without the other following, as though invisible silk ribbons threaded them together hand to hand, foot to foot, spine to spine, neck to neck.

When one man tried to make salads, the other wrapped himself around his body from behind, hands splayed flat against chest and stomach, holding tightly as if afraid that letting go really meant _letting go_. When the other man stepped into the shower to clean up, the one left behind was there in an instant, washing turning to worshiping turning to loving in every way possible.

Showers and baths, oil rubs and massages, strokes and caresses, tickling and laughing, dancing and sighing. A lifetime of love packed itself minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day into suitcases of memories that would never leave them. And through it all, not one emergency interruption from Kadara, not one transmission from the _Tempest_ , not one single solitary _peep_ from SAM.

Before they knew it two full weeks had passed, and just like that, half their time was gone. While Reyes teased about being caught out by some hapless passerby as he came upon his lover standing on the second floor balcony completely naked while the sun warmed his skin, Scott’s more melancholy demeanor went at first unnoticed.

“How is it that no matter the number of times I see or touch you, I feel as if I have never before seen or touched you when I come upon you looking this magnificent?” Reyes asked, joining Scott at the railing while sliding an arm around his waist and slotting against his side and shoulder. But he knew almost from the first that Scott was no longer boneless. Tension unseen since their arrival at the hideaway had returned and Reyes stiffened in response. “What is it? What’s happened?”

Scott looked down at the ground below. Looked at his own hands gripping rounded metal until his knuckles shone white. Whispered, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Reyes froze. “I…think I’ll need a bit more of an explanation than that to understand your meaning.” As if just then realizing what his words must have sounded like, Scott fell all over himself apologizing and kissed and kissed and kissed his man again, repeatedly for good measure, between I’m sorry’s and _Lo siento_ ’s. With a chuckle, Reyes batted him away, “Okay, okay, I get it, you’re as much of a dork as I’ve always taken you for.”

“You love me and you know it.”

Reyes stopped. Buried himself comfortably in eyes that were so familiar and yet always so new. “Yes. I do. And you know I do. Now, what troubles you, _mi alma_?”

Scott sighed. “When I said I can’t do this anymore, I meant…live by just…stealing time away with you. Live as though you aren’t the most important person in my life, the one I do it all for, the one I want to make everything better for. It’s like…what I am, what I’m called on to do by everybody, it makes you an afterthought, Reyes.” He turned and stroked the face he had so come to adore. “It’s the exact opposite. Heleus is livable. You’re safe. I’m safe.” He clasped Rey’s hands tightly. “You are the pinnacle of all that I have achieved…not Pathfinder, but that I can do this, here, with _you_.”

“But your crew. Sara. Your mother. Surely there are others Andromeda must be made safe for.”

“Of course,” Scott shook his head, waved his hands around a bit, turned, leaned the top of his butt against the railing. “It’s only been two weeks, but that means we only have two left and I’m already starting to lose my mind about having to say good-bye.”

“You’re getting better at the whole ‘using your words’ thing.”

“Shut up.”

“Exhibit A,” Reyes said with a flourish as he indicated Scott with both hands.

Scott moved quickly, trapping him against the railing, sliding his erection up and down the crack of Reyes’ ass while the man gripped the bar to keep himself upright. An absolutely filthy moan tore itself from the Charlatan’s gut and with only a bit of spit and a whole lot of gentle, Scott took him right there, not a word spoken, reaching around to pump Rey’s cock so they came at nearly the same moment, mere minutes after it had all started.

As soon as Scott freed his dick from his lover’s body, Reyes turned and devoured his mouth, moaning, “More…more… _mi amor…por favor_ ,” in amongst the frantic kissing that felt as if they were seeing each other for the first time after a year and desperately trying to hold onto individual moments long enough to make it all keep mattering.

“You understand now,” Scott huffed and whispered in amongst stolen breaths. “I can’t…Reyes, I _need_ …”

“I know, I know.” Reyes pulled Scott back into the bedroom, barked, “Close the doors!” and was glad in some way that SAM was listening when they just went ahead and closed. He pushed Scott down onto the bed, then crawled on top of him so fast that the other man was dazed.

Lying down upon him full-length, every point touching, Reyes and Scott kissed like the first and last time, rolling over and over one way, then the other, then back again, fingers grasping, reaching, tugging hair and touching, always touching, caressing, sometimes roughly claiming, mouths sucking love marks, bites, hickies even into flesh. Reyes’ tongue on Scott’s nipples reduced Scott to writhing and begging. Scott’s squeezing of Reyes’ ass so hard he left five-fingered bruising just made the king want his Pathfinder all the more.

“I think if I could crawl inside of you completely it wouldn’t be enough,” Reyes confessed as Scott scooted up behind to spoon him after two more rounds of coming inside of and all over each other had left them both boneless.

“Never enough,” Scott confirmed, manhandling Reyes into just the perfect shape to fit him in every way. Before long his breathing evened out and he was asleep, temple-to-temple with his love, cheek to cheek, arms enfolding him, protecting him, adoring him with every sleeping breath.

* * *

Reyes snuggled back impossibly closer and realized not for the first time that he was utterly and completely screwed. He had come to Andromeda to be someone. What he hadn’t realized back then when the decision had been made, was who exactly that someone was going to be.

As hard as he’d worked for what he’d accomplished with Kadara, Reyes knew the moment his eyelids fluttered closed that he would give it all up to remain at Scott Ryder’s side. Because the someone he’d become wasn’t a shady bastard at all. He was the man that the human Pathfinder _loved_. There was, to his way of thinking, no greater honor.

Or burden.


	5. The Solution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night before their month-long getaway comes to an end, Scott is agonizing over the dreadful feeling that something awful will happen to Reyes if he lets him return to Kadara, and discovers that Reyes doesn't trust that Scott will be safe either. But Reyes presents a solution to the whole problem that Scott finds brilliant, and thus as their time together comes to a close, both men prepare for the last month they will ever have to be apart. 
> 
> Or so they think.

They’d barely left the immediate perimeter of their hideaway as the last two weeks of their alone time skittered past, insects hurrying along to their own destination regardless what anyone nearby thought or wanted.

Scott grew more melancholy. He just couldn’t find his happy anymore. It felt like it would be too many forevers until they’d see each other again. He had no idea where Tann or Addison would want to send him next. Hell, there’d even been talk of going outside Heleus, exploring what lay beyond for even more Milky Way expansion, partially to keep from overrunning the angaran population, which Scott was all for, but also because Tann was dissatisfied with _status quo_.

He groused to Reyes that he wasn’t here to fulfill Director Tann’s or anyone else’s political ambitions. Reyes agreed. Understood. Was helpless to change the path of the finder any more than his own, he confessed, beyond both of them quitting and hiding out on some backwater planet.

The morning would see them using the rented hover car for the return trip to port. It would see them boarding another angaran shuttle. Reyes being dropped off at Kadara. Sara and the _Tempest_ landing there to reclaim their leader and taking off again as soon as supplies were restocked and orders were picked up.

Unable to shake the feeling of dread that had consumed him for the past week, Scott found himself pacing the living room in the dark of night. He’d left Reyes sleeping in their bed and no matter what calming techniques he used or how much exercise he did in the small gym or what thoughts he tried to replace his current ones with, the feeling had clamped him tightly in its painful clawed grip and refused to be loosed.

It was as tears began filling his eyes and despair began to inexplicably overtake him in ways even he didn’t thoroughly understand that SAM spoke for the first time since they’d arrived at this place nearly a full month prior.

“Scott, I am at a loss how to be of help to you. There is no known threat to Mr. Vidal’s life and yet your reactions suggest you know with certainty that something unpleasant will befall him.”

Scott stopped pacing as SAM’s words sunk in. “Like I’m stuck in a premonition.”

“I have no experience with such things, though I am given to understand that often premonitions are nothing more or less than a human being’s subconscious mind expressing latent fears and anxieties.”

When Scott said nothing, but instead plopped down onto the massive sofa that had witnessed and held more than its fair share of lovemaking over the past several weeks, he scrubbed his hands down his face as he contemplated SAM’s observation.

“Do you believe something untoward will befall Mr. Vidal upon his return to Kadara, or is it quite simply that you wish not to part? That the thought is…perhaps, painful?”

With a hard swallow, Scott shrugged and sort of squeaked, “I don’t know. Both, maybe?” An overwhelming tidal wave of sudden grief washed over him, so powerful that it literally punched a sob out of the deepest recesses of his gut. “I’m so afraid,” he managed to breathe out in the aftermath. “What if he…what if they…what if I…” Scott rose to his feet, looked up at the ceiling and allowed the tears to fall. “I can’t live without him, SAM. I don’t even want to be as far apart from him as I am right now in this moment.”

A voice came from the direction of the staircase. “Which isn’t very far at all.”

The two met halfway, colliding once more as if they hadn’t just been making love, hadn’t fallen asleep in each other’s arms after whispering more words of _amor_ to each other in an hour than they had in the entire previous two weeks combined. Their arms tightened, holding each other so close they could barely breathe, as Scott sobbed into his lover’s neck, fingertips digging into the flesh of his shoulders and upper arms.

“What if something happens to you?” Scott finally managed to give voice to his fears. “What if some of Kelly’s leftovers come to take their revenge on you? Kaetus, maybe. What if the scavengers gang up on you, the Outcasts, other rebel groups? What if the kett return and decide cutting the head off the snake was a good move for you and will be better for them? I can’t, Reyes, I _can’t_ send you back to Kadara alone, you don’t understand.”

“I do, Scott,” Reyes finally managed to edge into Scott’s frantic monologue. “God help me, but I do.”

Scott looked at him with some confusion as Reyes used his thumbs to wipe the tears from his cheeks. “What if Primus targets you, takes you by surprise in the vacuum of space, God forbid _exalts_ you?” he asked and Scott hitched in a breath. “What if you run into a contingent of Roekaar that doesn’t give a shit about Akksul’s fall from grace and still hates us all and believes doing away with you will further their goals of demoralizing and ultimately eliminating those from the Milky Way? What if you land on some planet somewhere and its native wildlife or population turn out to be as bad as the kett? What if you have to be gone from Heleus altogether for three months, six, a year, and I can’t even contact you?”

Reyes’ head rolled forward until his forehead connected with Scott’s sternum. “ _No puedo hacerlo más_ ,” he whispered, breath heated against Scott’s flesh. “I was contemplating it already, more than two weeks ago. But hearing you speak with SAM, seeing what being forced to separate from me is doing to you, much as it is to me, I…Scott, I _must_ return to Kadara.” He lifted his head to see the misery on Scott’s face. “But it will only be long enough to prepare Keema and my operations there to continue without me.”

It took nearly a full minute for Scott’s brain to process what he was hearing. When it all finally caught up, he stared at Reyes in shock. “What do you mean? You…you can’t mean giving up being the Charlatan. After everything you’ve done to get to the top?”

“ _Te adoro_ ,” Reyes said, smoothing back Scott’s hair from his forehead where it had fallen beautifully against his skin, free from its usual product. “What we feel, what we _are_ together, Scott, it’s madness. Insanity.” He shook his head. “I once told you that I came to Andromeda to be someone. Well, guess what? I _am_ someone. I am the someone who belongs to you. _With_ you. At your side, no matter what.”

Scott’s lower lip trembled as he fought to contain himself. Fought against wanting to tell Reyes he couldn’t let him give up his dream just because Scott couldn’t contemplate not seeing him every second of every day. Fought against doing the exact opposite, holding him tightly in relief and thanking him for sacrificing everything to accompany him wherever he went as Pathfinder Ryder.

“I also once told you that I like to run things from the shadows. That’s why Keema is a front for me, and regardless of where I am physically, will continue to be so. She is well-protected, she loves being the one in the spotlight, and I can call the shots from any shadow I wish, including those found in the corners of your _Tempest_ quarters.”

And that’s when Reyes’ brilliance finally overlaid itself on the much simpler take Scott had been projecting onto their relationship. It wasn’t at all about Ryder having to leave being a Pathfinder to stay on Kadara because Reyes had to be there, or Reyes having to relinquish being the Charlatan to stay on the _Tempest_ because Scott had to be there. They could do both. They could…actually _could_ …have it all.

“You mean…” Scott began, breath suddenly knocked out of him as the tension and fear bled freely away. “You’ll stay with me, but still be the Charlatan. Nothing will change except where you are physically. Nothing at all?”

“Ah, _mi alma_ , let no one ever say you aren’t the smartest man in the galaxy.”

Scott burst out laughing. Normally he’d have at least punched his man in the arm for such teasing, but in the moment, he was so damn grateful that he simply kissed the living shit out of him.

At some point Reyes fought him off in order to breathe again, and Scott was very nearly giddy with the turn of events. So much so that he completely forgot about the gut-wrenching fear he’d been feeling not half an hour before.

The men spent the rest of the early morning hours until well after dawn, talking logistics. Finally, it was decided that Reyes would spend one last month as a ‘permanent resident’ on Kadara making all final arrangements, determining what was going to be needed both there and on the _Tempest_ to ensure he could still run the show remotely, and coordinating with his Resistance friends and his own Collective cells to ensure the proper security would remain in place for Ditaeon as well as for Keema and her advisors.

Scott would spend the month wrapping up administrivia at Meridian, because there was always paperwork when you made a bunch of planets habitable, knew more about ancient alien technology than anyone else, befriended new aliens – one of which was interested in your twin sister now – and oh, yes, brought two missing arks and their Pathfinders home.

He would negotiate with _Nexus_ leadership and Sara regarding how they would split human Pathfinder duties and God help Tann if he tried to tell the Ryder siblings “No deal.” Scott already knew this was what Sara wanted – to be at least an equal partner with him in their father’s legacy. To spearhead at _least_ half of all the things left for them to do, and – of course – to further her interest in that certain angaran crewmember with a very deep voice and the kindest heart Scott had ever encountered.

This would work for everyone. Scott knew it would. And so as he and Reyes sped back to the Ryder planet’s port…as they boarded an angaran transport headed for Kadara…as they said their farewells on the platform with only the two angaran pilots as witnesses to their fierce kiss and the went-on-for-too-long hug they didn’t want to let go of, for the first time in the entire month since they’d left together, both men felt light. Happy. Positive. The future awaited them.

But the future hadn’t planned on Akksul.


	6. Floating and Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One minute, Reyes Vidal is floating on several clouds as he settles affairs on Kadara in preparation for joining Scott in space. The next, he's gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been tweaked since first published, to add some scenes and flashbacks.

Keema had been unable and wholly unwilling to stop teasing Reyes for two solid weeks. “You’re practically floating,” she’d once told him as he’d approached her in the throne room.

“Ah, you beautiful alien woman,” he’d replied dramatically, “I feel as though I’ve sprouted wings.” And then he’d planted a silly kiss right on her lips and actually made her blush. Visibly.

Reyes was so idiotically happy that everyone noticed. He planted rumors all over Heleus, helped along by friends, contacts and even enemies. Nobody knew what was really going on, but most suspected he was about to make a big haul that would net him more credits than anyone on Kadara had a right to hold on their chits. There was something to be said for spending years cultivating the image that the only thing you cared about was your greed. Misdirection at its finest.

In the aftermath of Zia’s disappearance, more local smugglers had also gone missing or been roughed up so badly they’d left the planet altogether. Not one finger could legitimately point at any specific individual or even group, beyond speculation. Rather, all the fingers pointed each one at a different source, which had muddied the Port waters enough that even the Initiative wasn’t interested in touching the mysterious inner workings of the place with someone else’s ten-foot pole. Once again, the awesome thing about Reyes suddenly “disappearing” from Kadara was that it’d be chalked up to other smugglers leaving, too.

Umi knew what was really going on because Umi knew _everything_ due to her people-reading and bartending skills. All she said to him one night as he stared for a moment at the place Scott had stood the day he’d first laid eyes on him was, “Don’t be a stranger, asshole.” With a wink and a pinky-swear promise that made her groan and roll her eyes, he’d agreed.

That side of the bar, that was one place on Kadara that Reyes would sorely miss, purely for nostalgic reasons. He couldn’t help but smile as he placed his hand on the countertop and closed his eyes.

_The krogan didn’t want to pay. They usually didn’t. Umi put up with nobody’s bullshit. She’d left the man at the end of the bar completely alone, as he’d prearranged, for there was no drink before him as he watched the display. Probably wondering if he’d have to chivalrously step in to defend Umi, Reyes surmised._

_And then he’d come round the line of sight well enough that as the Pathfinder turned, he’d been able to see him from head to toe. His step faltered. His heart raced. The man, simply put, was_ beautiful _. Well-dressed, too. Black pants. Black shirt. Red and black jacket._

_Red. Reyes shivered._

_“You look like you’re waiting for someone.” He tapped the bar twice._

_A cold, calculated glance, arms crossed defensively over his chest. But…Ryder’s eyes lingered as he leaned back into the bar. Just long enough that Reyes caught a faint glimmer of hope as it whizzed past him. As he’d arranged, he got two drinks from Umi, who did so hate being part of his plots and so gave him ‘that look’ as she handed the cups over._

_He offered one. Split seconds where he would know, know for certain. Ryder’s placid face, a pure poker-player’s face. He’d be a hard one to read, it seemed._

_“I’ve got time for a drink.” He took the offered cup._

_One more glimmer of hope, caught. Held out in his own cup-holding hand. He waited. Scott bumped his cup against Reyes’ and they drank._

_The beginning of_ everything _._

Reyes tore himself away and headed out of the bar. Things were nearly completely organized. He’d be meeting with three more people over the next two weeks to get all of the in-person stuff out of the way for the foreseeable future.

Then in a replay of its fairly regular visits to Ditaeon to check on the well-being of the Initiative’s most surprising outpost, the _Tempest_ would land exactly two weeks from today, spend nearly a week offloading supplies, picking up things that needed to go elsewhere and lending the colonists as many helping hands as the ship could spare for the next couple of weeks after that. With any luck, Reyes mused, he’d be spending some actual in-person facetime with Sara at last. He couldn’t wait to hear all of the embarrassing Little Scotty childhood stories, and getting to know the one person he knew would always be more important to Scott than he was…and rightfully so.

Keema and some of the formerly badly-thought-of criminal types from the Port would join _Tempest_ at the outpost at the end of the its visit. Then there would be a big, celebratory bash for five full days, where daylight would be spent with sleeves rolled up building more community type buildings that would allow Kadara’s non-Initiative residents to interact more fully with their former _Nexus_ mates. Where the angara could come to make friends, learn about those from the Milky Way. Live and work and share stories and fellowship side-by-side-by-side. So many on the planet saw the potential for turning it into a hotspot that enticed many different alien races to gather for true coexisting and whatever else they could dream up. Liam, the Pathfinder’s Liam, had decided to leave _Tempest_ for three whole months to oversee the entire thing with Keema personally.

Although Reyes suspected that the two of them were in a bit of denial about their real reasons for doing it all. But hey, who was he to judge, given who _he_ was with, after all, and how the only reason he’d found any bravado to approach the man romantically at all was the direct result of Scott’s idea of a distraction?

_“Take the night off. Come out for a drink. Should’ve known you were up to something.”_

_So involved had he been in what he was looking for – whiskey was arguably Reyes most obvious weakness to any who spent half an hour in his presence – that he’d jumped clear through his skin at the unexpected sound of Scott’s voice._

_“Ryder!” His heart was pounding, and not just from the scare. “It’s not what it looks like.”_

_“So you didn’t use me as a distraction to go through Sloane’s stuff?”_

_Busted. Crap. How was it he could do so much on Kadara, make so much money after starting with absolutely nothing, yet he was completely incapable of working anything to do with Scott Ryder correctly?_

_“Okay. Yes. But it’s for both our benefit! I promise.” Even Reyes winced on that last word. How many promises had he made now? None of which he’d kept. Well, at least it fit with his scoundrel image. Maybe Scott liked bad boys? Did he even like boys?_ Good God _, Reyes, moaned internally, he was turning into a lovestruck teenager._

_“You’ve been making a lot of promises—”_

_The sound of a door swishing open. Footfalls. Adrenaline coursed through Reyes. Ah, the part of his shenanigans that he loved – the almost-getting-caught-being-naughty part. But then he realized he’d dragged the Initiative Pathfinder into the situation and oh, shit, that was so not good. If Sloane thought Ryder was in any way trying to steal from her, well…bad for Scott and the things he was trying to do here, for one. And he’d probably never forgive him._

_“Shit – someone’s coming! We need a distraction!”_

_Reyes figured Scott might start looking like he was drunk, weaving and slurring, distract the guard so Reyes could hide, on about ‘where’s the bathroom’ or ‘I got lost’ or some such schtick. The one thing he hadn’t counted on, that he never saw coming, was the kiss._

_Scott grabbed his biceps and literally dove into his lips. Reyes’ right hand automatically cradled Scott’s head as their first kiss, chaste as it was, lit his entire face on fire. Reyes couldn’t help the grunted moan that escaped his throat as Scott licked his way into his mouth. He grabbed Scott’s waist and pulled him roughly closer, more than just one thing twitching with great interest._

_The guard was surprised. She apologized, which was hilarious in and of itself, Reyes thought, given that the two of them were somewhere off-limits. As soon as the guard walked away he managed to extricate his mouth from Scott’s but could barely think as he looked over Scott’s shoulder. Scott kind of glanced, but it seemed he had eyes only for Reyes._

_“I think we’re in the clear.” He could hear it in his own voice, knew Scott had to be able to hear it, too. Surprise. Most of all, desire. Burning desire. Reyes searched his eyes. Saw that Scott’s were searching back. Breaths shared for miniscule moments._

_“Maybe another kiss? Just to be sure.”_

_There was more than a double entendre in that, and Reyes saw that it was purely intended. Scott’s voice was softer. And laced with the same amount of desire. Could it truly be?_

_Well, standing around waiting to get caught a second time wasn’t the best of ideas, and so Reyes chuckled as he pulled away. “Now you’re just teasing me.” And oh, how he was enjoying being teased._

_Scott chuckled softly. And then, for the first time since he’d met him, he_ smiled _. And Reyes…well, he was_ gone _on the man. For good._

Reyes pulled himself out of his memories as he next walked out of one of the outpost prefabs. He couldn’t help the laugh he barked out when nearby, Liam got himself a bit stuck between a ladder and a wall trying to hang colorful handmade lanterns between Ditaeon’s prefab buildings, building-to-building as if what was between them were actual streets rather than sand and gravel. Four angaran younglings and three human teenagers guffawed at his predicament. The former cop definitely seemed to be in his element here. Off to the side, there stood Keema with her arms crossed, staring and trying not to laugh. Failing miserably, he added mentally, when he saw her teeth bared before her hands came up to hide it. Then she waved at him, grin still on her face and he waved back with a matching one.

Everything he was seeing now had begun with the _Nexus_ uprising. It had continued with his own efforts on Kadara to undermine Sloane Kelly’s greedy, vise-like grip on the Port, and then had been pushed into whole new directions with Scott’s blinding optimism. They had then proceeded through their efforts _together_ , and although no one would ever know about all of that save a select few, everything that all their teams and cells and groups of people from multiple species had done was now going to culminate in Andromeda’s first block party. Never mind that according to Scott, Sara believed it should be called a sand party given that the only blocks were in her brother’s head.

Reyes grinned again as he seated himself in his hover car, the first wave of new machinery manufactured as a cooperative effort between the sovereign krogan and the _Nexus_ colonists of New Tuchanka. He was grateful that Scott had agreed to bring the car with them, as there might be times they just wanted to go out and about somewhere as themselves and not in an Initiative-marked NOMAD built for war and harsh conditions. Plus, his new baby was a deep blood red – Reyes’ favorite color – and he could pretty much happily drool over it all day long.

It made Scott jealous. Which he had an idea would result in fantastic sex. Which…win all the way around, as far as Reyes was concerned.

He had one last stop to make today after having delivered the party music to Simeon, a human who’d once been considered one of the most violent Outlaws on Kadara, but who’d recently agreed to become an event planner reporting directly to Keema. How times – and people! – had changed.

Though most had no idea about Scott’s and Reyes’ relationship, at least not the seriousness of it, and though only Keema, Scott’s original _Tempest_ crew and two others on Kadara knew Reyes was the Charlatan, it seemed that whatever had infected the two men that left them so stupidly, madly in love with each other had also infected the former Milky Way residents and a lot of the angara. Reyes knew exactly what that something was as he sped along the gravelly sand that was slowly beginning to change via the magic of Kadara’s vault.

Hope.

Hope made people feel that things were possible. That even if situations didn’t magically become perfect overnight, if even one thing improved that meant that another could also improve. And another and another and another until suddenly, everything would seem perfect after all.

Hope. It was what _Hyperion_ had brought to the bleakness of _Nexus_. It was what the humans thought they had lost when Alec Ryder had died on Ryder 1. It was what Alec’s son had stubbornly pressed forward throughout the Heleus Cluster and infused into every man, woman and child of every species he met, having been forced into something he’d never trained for, had never contemplated. And yet he had shouldered the burden laid upon him like the heaviest mantle that any god could bestow upon a right or left hand. And not only had he shouldered it, he’d succeeded where such had seemed utterly impossible before he appeared.

Scott had had _that_ hope. He _was_ that hope. Reyes was convinced that no matter how much help the man had been given along the way, it was his own charisma and compassion and refusal to quit that made it work. He’d started out with one man and one woman given to him by _Nexus_ , both of whom had been lost in their own ways but somehow healed through their association and friendship with Scott. Now there was Cora, involved in so many different things with the angara and the asari that she rarely saw the inside of the _Tempest_ anymore. And the second, Liam, the Outpost King, with plans enough to keep each and every one of their mayors busy for years to come.

Reyes had only met Cora, Liam and Drack before, but he felt as if he knew them all intimately thanks to Scott’s sincere joy when talking about his crewmembers and friends. Peebee was working with Avela Kjar, roaming the Cluster looking for Jaardan, Angaran and Remnant artifacts since they all now were aware that these things were much more related than had previously been known. She’d settled into living out of a small angaran ship funded by the Aya Repository of History, and often Avela was with her adventuring, much to the delight of both.

Gil had become a father to his best friend Jill’s baby, and spent part of his time with them, but mostly stayed on the _Tempest_ with Kallo, Suvi, Drack and Jaal…well, Jaal went wherever Sara went, pretty much. Reyes laughed out loud as he recalled Scott telling him the first time he realized his big, squishy-emotioned, goofy, huggy angaran friend wanted to do a bit more than hug his sister, and how he wasn’t sure whether to punch him or hug him so he’d done both.

Much to Jaal’s delight as he’d crowed, “You are becoming more an angara each day!”

Dr. Lexi remained on _Tempest_ , Vetra had decided to stay as well and her sister Sid would be joining them within the next couple of weeks to specialize in Communications as well as several other roles that would need to be filled and fleshed out with so many of the team fluctuating in the post-Meridian months. Scott and Reyes had talked about what the latter might be able to do on-board. Given that he’d be working a lot as the shadowy Charlatan from the soundproofed privacy of Scott’s quarters, they agreed Reyes’ duties would have to be ones that wouldn’t take up eighteen hours a day, seven days a week.

Reyes’ smile faded a bit. He hadn’t ever actually told Scott anything about his Milky Way history and even now, wasn’t really sure about doing so. Things were so good, so _damn_ good. How would it help to share his past? And yet the majority of him felt guilty for _not_ doing so. After all, hadn’t it been Reyes himself who’d told Scott he wanted no more secrets between them? But then Scott had said that he’d have them because that was just who he was.

But was it? Did it need to be?

The more Reyes thought about it, the more he didn’t believe it did. There were skills he had…ways he could be useful that Scott didn’t have any clue about. Security being one of them, from a few different angles. And on a battlefield, well…Scott truly hadn’t seen even the tiniest fraction of Reyes’ capabilities there. A gun was most definitely not his best weapon.

He had just about resolved to himself that he would confess his entire Milky Way history to Scott the first night they spent together aboard _Tempest_ as they embarked on their new lives together, when it happened. Though he wasn’t entirely sure what ‘it’ was. All he saw was a bright flash and deafening boom, as if someone had ignited one of those sonic boom fireworks usually set off back on Earth during 4th of July celebrations. Ignited it literally on top of him.

There was a brief flash of pain that blossomed in his chest. In his mind’s eye, all he could see was the unhappy look on Scott’s face in the cavern, when Scott thought he might be standing there just waiting for Sloane to kill Reyes right in front of him. His downturned mouth. The fear in his eyes, as though begging Reyes not to do this.

Then another blast and his beloved Bloodmaw, as he’d named the car, flipping end-over-end through the air. He felt it land hard upside-down and choked out, “Scott,” but the name died in his throat as consciousness fled.


	7. Love, Safety, Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott has finally finished with his day's administrivia and cheerfully engages in a confessional conversation with Gil. When a somewhat frantic call from Keema interrupts them, it's all Scott can do to reel himself in from the blind panic that their conversation unleashes within him. Luckily, Gil's got his back.

“Finally!” Scott groused good-naturedly, throwing his hands in the air in relieved exasperation.

Gil laughed as he joined him in the hallway outside the Administrator’s Office. “Paperwork’s finally finished?”

“How is there even paperwork these days?” Scott asked rather dramatically with an exaggerated eyeroll. “We have the technology to freeze people for more than six hundred years and have them up and walking around within an hour of thawing, but we can’t automate reports and requisitions and—”

The _Tempest_ engineer burst out laughing as the two hurried along the corridor of what had become the administrative office section aboard the _Hyperion_ while plans were underway to construct a human headquarters tower for Meridian.

“So tell me,” Scott changed the subject through his laughter, “how’s Liliana doing?”

Gil’s face both softened and lit up like a Christmas tree. “Ryder, let me tell you something, it’s the greatest and scariest thing I’ve ever known, to pick up this little tiny creature and know it’s part of me. I mean, to say I have a _daughter_ , it’s got to be the weirdest string of words that’s ever left my mouth. She looks at you with these eyes, like…you can’t even explain it, but you somehow know that _she_ knows. Ya know?”

“No, but maybe one day I’ll get it.”

Quirking an eyebrow at him, Gil asked, “Yeah, how is it that Jill hasn’t bullied you into fathering a baby somehow? Ryder genes seem to be in high demand these days what with the whole ‘saving the cluster’ thing.”

“Given that my sister’s probably going to be more concerned with the logistics of alien physiology, I’m a bit worried about my prospects for becoming the only viable lab rat,” Scott joked, though he could tell from Gil’s reaction that he wasn’t fooling anyone.

“You’ve got someone, haven’t you?” the engineer asked softly as they reached an intersecting hallway that would see them part ways.

It took every ounce of Scott’s willpower not to jump through his skin and start going on and on like some giddy pre-teen girl, but since Gil would know soon enough by simple virtue of being aboard _Tempest_ when Reyes took up permanent residence in his quarters, he didn’t think there’d be much harm in a confession. As such, he looked for the first unoccupied room and pulled Gil into it with him.

“I’ll spill if you do,” Scott said, barely able to contain his excitment as the door swished closed behind them, like he was challenging Gil to a game of Chess or a hand of Poker with a surefire way to win in his pocket.

Gil’s face turned beet red and Scott grinned. “You first, Ryder.”

“You ever heard of a guy from Kadara named Reyes Vidal?” he asked nonchalantly, but with a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Eyes opening wide and nearly bugging right out of his head, Gil’s voice rose an octave when he asked, “The Charlatan? No way!”

“That’s the one,” Scott nodded, smile now plastered to his face.

“I had no idea you had a thing for bad boys, you dawg.”

Scott laughed, snorted and laughed some more. “It’s not like that.”

“Suuuure it’s not.” Gil turned in a circle, gesturing wildly with his hands. “How…I mean, really, you, Ryder, the human Pathfinder who led the entire Milky Way to finding a home in Andromeda, and the King of Kadara that hardly anyone knows is the King of Kadara, a smuggler, a…shady guy. How in the… _really_?”

Scott laughed. “Trust me, it took the two of us by as much surprise.” He shook his head. “All right, all right, so you know. Now spill on yours.”

Gil looked around like he fully expected there to be someone else sneakily hiding nearby specifically to overhear his secret. “This is HNS,” he whispered.

“What?” Scott very nearly cried at the top of his lungs. “You’re kidding. Davis Qar?”

Now Gil’s coloring resembled the same red that highlighted much of his self-imposed uniform. “One and the same.”

“Man. He’s _hot_. I worked with him quite a bit to get those receivers set up. What a great voice to listen to.”

Gil very nearly swooned. “Oh, you have no idea. That _voice_ , Ryder. There are certain things it should be illegal for him to say. I’m glad it’s not, but it should be.”

Laughing right out loud, Scott shook Gil’s hand in an adorably goofy way. “Congratulations.”

“I should say the same to you, but…I have to wonder…the Initiative’s perfect Golden Boy and a criminal? What the hell is Tann gonna say?”

Scott scowled but there was no heat in it. “We’ve all had to do things we’re not proud of and Reyes is no exception. Also, Tann can blow me, except he can’t because my boyfriend would end him.”

Guffawing, Gil wiped tears from his eyes as Scott stared off into a nonexistent distance. His face softened, eyes closing as so many things came to mind. Things nobody else knew about. “He’s…doing a lot to help, Gil. More than anyone will ever know, all from the shadows.” Scott sighed. “As visible as my deeds are, that’s how _in_ visible his are.”

Gil’s teasing evaporated. “I hope his face has that exact same look when he thinks of you.”

Scott felt his cheeks heat up and smiled. “Yeah. I think it does. How ‘bout yours?”

“Davis and I have been on four dates. We’re in the feeling each other out stage, right now.”

“Out. Up. All over.”

Gil mock-punched Scott’s bicep. “We’re taking it slow because…well…Scott, I’ve gotta be honest with you. There’s one thing you’ve made me feel out here in this big unknown place, and it’s a feeling that needs to continue being there if I get into a serious relationship with someone, you know, transferring my heart from being married to my ship and its captain and crew, to belonging to just one man.”

“Really?” Scott asked. “What’s that?”

“Safe. No matter what, you always have our backs, every single one of us who was your crew all that time. And you still do. Here we were, all strangers, all thrown at you to somehow make a team from. A team that could beat the worst threat anyone here has ever faced. Not only did you accomplish that, but beyond your duties as Pathfinder you listened, you got to know us, you actually _cared_ about each one of us. You helped us when we had troubles and scares. Wanted to understand what made us tick, be a real friend in addition to our leader. Made us each feel like we were the only other person alive in the whole of Andromeda when you sat down and zeroed in on us. I felt like I could talk to you about anything.”

“You can,” Scott confirmed, placing a hand on Gil’s shoulder and squeezing, emotions wreaking havoc in his chest to hear such frank descriptions of things he just did naturally because he really _did_ care. “You’ll always be able to, no matter where we go, because we’ll always be BFFs.”

“See, and that confidence, that assuredness, that’s what I’m looking in a partner. Somehow, I think you have that with your Charlatan, though I can’t even fathom how that’s possible. But I’ve always believed there’s someone for everyone and I’m thinking you two managed to find it despite all the odds. I see it in your eyes.”

“We do have that,” Scott nodded. “One word and he’d be here. One word and I’d be there. I don’t care where I am in the galaxy, he…well, he’s first, now, Gil. And he feels the same way about me.”

“ _That’s_ what I’m going for, Ryder. You know, in so many ways your example has made me a better man,” Gil replied. As he opened his mouth to continue, SAM interjected them by projecting his voice to Scott’s omnitool.

“I apologize for the interruption, but Keema Dohrgun has been trying to reach you.”

Scott made a questioning face. “And it’s this important?”

“Yes. It’s…Scott, it’s about Mr. Vidal.”

Face repurposing into a nearly blank, scared look, Scott quickly said, “Put her through here.”

“Yes, Pathfinder.”

Within a second, Keema’s worried voice floated into the air around them, chilling it perceptibly when she asked, “Ryder? Have you heard from Reyes?”

“I…no. I’ve been busy with paperwork all day, stuck in administrative hell.” He swallowed and took in Gil’s concerned face, which only made his heart start thudding abnormally. “Why do you ask?”

A few seconds of silence reigned before she responded. “He was supposed to meet with Shamala Shin an hour ago,” Keema replied. “Is it…may I speak freely?”

Scott nodded, though he knew she couldn’t see him. “Yes, of course, go ahead.”

“Shamala was one of the first angaran contacts Reyes made when he arrived on Kadara. I was among the next handful. I’ve known Shamala for years, and have partnered with her on and off in various endeavors since she and I left Voeld to come to Kadara. She’s been trying for a long time to set up a clothing and soft goods manufacturing plant here but there was simply too much crime for it to be feasible, never mind the fees Sloane Kelly refused to budge on.”

“And Reyes was fronting for you fronting for him to get the ball rolling with her.”

“Yes, exactly. This was meant to be the Charlatan reaching out to begin discussions with the angara about a venture that would bring thousands of jobs to Kadara, and a much more reliable source of soft goods to Heleus, on the cusp of…well, you know.”

“So why are you worried about where he is if you know?” How Scott wanted to dash out of the room toward any ship he could find regardless of there being no real need as far as he could tell, but he also knew he couldn’t let anyone but Gil overhear the words ‘Reyes’ and ‘Charlatan’ in the same sentence.

“After a series of successful negotiations earlier today with various parties, Reyes took the Bloodmaw out to Ditaeon to deliver his music playlist for the celebration.”

“Bloodmaw?” Gil whispered.

“His new hover car,” Scott replied.

“I thought you said it was safe to speak!” Keema exclaimed.

“It is. Gil knows.”

“Ah, yes, hello, Mr. Brodie.”

“Hi, yourself, Keema. So did he make it to the outpost?”

“Yes. Simeon said Reyes gave him the playlist, chatted with him a little about the preparations and then left. I myself saw him speed toward Ishna’rahna some short while later as I was watching Liam and some of the children put up party lanterns.”

“Is Ishna’rahna where he was supposed to meet Shamala?”

“What is that?” Gil asked.

“A new community house for a few small towns that have sprung up near Twin Peaks, southwest region,” Scott replied quickly. “There’s a second building next to the main house that we rent out office space in for start-ups.”

“We?”

“Joint Kadara-Initiative. First one in the Cluster. Fees and revenue split right down the middle between us.”

“Cool,” Gil replied. Then, to Keema, “He didn’t make it to the meeting?”

“No, he didn’t,” Keema confirmed. “Shamala sent me an OTN twenty minutes ago. I’ve been working contacts to see if I could find him, as well as trying to raise him myself, but have had no luck.”

“Have you talked to Shamala outside the Omnitool Notice?” Scott asked, a wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows as he frowned at his own device.

“Yes. I finally put through a call and she said she waited for an hour, but had to leave for an appointment with a land agent. Just before calling you I spoke with Xusto, and he hasn’t seen any sign of Reyes or his car.”

“Xusto…he’s the office building administrator, right?”

“Yes. He has access to everywhere in that building and the community center both, all the security cameras, parking garage, everywhere…and there’s been no sign of Reyes on the grounds at any point today.”

Gil’s frown joined Ryder’s. “So…somewhere between Ditaeon and Ishna’rahna, he what…vanished?”

And that was when Scott’s full-out panic attack hit him just as hard as it had in the wee hours of the night at their hideaway on Ryder 1, as Habitat 7 was now being called.

_“I’m so afraid,” he managed to breathe out. “What if he…what if they…what if I…” Scott rose to his feet, looked up at the ceiling and allowed the tears to fall._

He quickly bent over and stuck his head between his legs, chest constricting, _can’t breathe can’t breathe_.

“Scott!” Gil barked.

“What’s happening?” Keema asked.

_“I can’t live without him, SAM. I don’t even want to be as far apart from him as I am right now in this moment.”_

“Oh, my God. It was right. My gut was right.” Scott huffed out when he looked at Gil with pleading eyes, but the engineer felt helpless because he had no idea what the Pathfinder was on about.

“Ryder, what’s happened? Did you know something was going to?”

_“What if something happens to you?” Scott finally managed to give voice to his fears. “What if some of Kelly’s leftovers come to take their revenge on you? Kaetus, maybe.”_

“Oh, my God, why didn’t I listen to my instincts?” Scott very nearly yelled, eyes filling with tears as he righted himself, grabbed handfuls of his hair and tried to get his breathing under control. Keema was asking what he was talking about. Gil was, too. But it was as if Scott could no longer hear them as the tidal wave of grief he’d felt that night consumed him all over again.

_“What if the scavengers gang up on you, the Outcasts, other rebel groups? What if the kett return and decide cutting the head off the snake was a good move for you and will be better for them?”_

Scott was shaking. With fear. With anger. With determination. His eyes met Gil’s, which seemed to morph right in front of Ryder’s gaze from worried as hell to just as resolved. “Whatever you need, Scott. I’m here.” A hand came out. Grasped Scott’s forearm. Squeezed. “Anything. Just talk to me.”

“I’m here as well. I love him too, Scott, you know that,” Keema added, voice filled with emotion.

_“I can’t, Reyes, I_ can’t _send you back to Kadara alone, you don’t understand.”_

And yet, he _had_ sent him back.

Without another word, Ryder sprinted out of the room, Gil hot on his heels.

_Please, God,_ Scott prayed as anyone who happened to be anywhere in their path scattered like leaves being blown by a hurricane wind. _Please let him be okay, please please please…_


	8. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyes Vidal isn't who and what everyone has always thought. Meet the real man behind the scoundrel smuggler, along with some surprising capabilities that he has to use to escape confinement. A slight rewrite of history as you know it, including a surprising revelation or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated/tweaked this chapter on 1/17/21.

Reyes coughed and felt like his chest was being squeezed in a vise. He dragged in a breath and attempted to pry his eyelids open. They felt sticky, mucky, stuck together as though he’d had an all-night cry and in the morning he’d awakened with them swollen and crusted shut.

He heard himself wheezing, wondered why he was unable to open his eyelids…and then blinked.

His eyelids _were_ open.

But Reyes still couldn’t see.

Panic tried to rise but he quickly drew on his SCAMP training and squashed it down, compartmentalizing fear into a little tiny box in his head that he shoved onto a dark shelf in a recessed, shadowy corner of his psyche along with all the others he’d hidden there over the years.

Yes, he was blinking, but there wasn’t anything to see. Whether that meant he was blinded, either physically or medically, or whether it meant he was just in a room that was _that_ dark he couldn’t be sure, so he tabled that observation and moved on.

He was flat on his back, spread-eagled. His wrists were bound to whatever the table or contraption was that he was lying atop. Manacles, but tightly held to what felt like a polycarbonate table with arms and legs carved out. He was naked, that much was certain. He could feel the material along every inch of his neck, elbows, back, ass, legs. Ankles also held in tight shackles. Ah, there was the reason for the chest constriction: a metal bar that was too small for his barrel-shaped chest. Another unforgiving strap dug into his hip bones.

He had been kidnapped. He was being held somewhere with no way to do anything, whether free himself or shoot or knife someone. He was completely defenseless and unable to fight.

Or so his captors thought.

Reyes had to smile in spite of the pain, the potential panic that might ensue if he truly found himself to be sightless, and the coldness that made his teeth want to chatter and his dick crawl up inside his body. He could hear the hum of machinery and deduced that he was in some sort of refrigerated or super-cooled room. But was he still on Kadara, he wondered, or had he been taken off-world?

There was no telling how long he’d been unconscious. He wondered about the flash-bang that had knocked him out and reasoned that it was probably a flash grenade that’d been thrown at Bloodmaw. But as he recalled where he’d been at the time, he couldn’t remember any structures or flora for anyone to hide behind in order to ambush him. No matter how carefree Reyes felt at any given moment, the _only_ time he wasn’t scanning around himself in a 270-degree area was when he was with Ryder at their hideaway.

Ryder. Oh, shit. However long Reyes had been gone, he’d been on his way to meet with Shamala Shin, maybe twenty minutes out from a meeting that was meant to happen in about 45 minutes from the time he was abducted. If he hadn’t shown, Shin would have reached out to Keema. Keema would have tried to reach him via omnitool, then worked their mutual contacts and, as a last resort, would’ve called Ryder, who was currently on Meridian.

Assuming it’d been more than an hour since he’d been taken, that meant Ryder already knew and was already going batshit crazy trying to find him.

Reyes took a deep breath, as well as he could given the hard metal strap’s restricting efforts, let the breath out slowly, counted to ten and closed his eyes. Not that he could tell, of course.

Boy, it had been a really, _really_ long time since he’d done this. Slowly his years of training with Aichi and his SCAMP squad came back to him.

_“You are now Stealth Combat Assassin Military Policemen,” Colonel Walker Tracy proudly stated, saluting the four men standing before him. Reyes, saluted right back, along with his other three squadmates who he didn’t actually know all that well._

His breaths evened out. He looked inside himself. Felt the spark. Felt the pull. Felt the fabric of the world he inhabited gather round him like a shroud. Not once had he tried this in Andromeda. Would it work here as it did in the Milky Way? It should…after all, the biotics were able to function here just as well as where they’d all come from.

_“Your SCAMP training has left you each as the best weapons the Alliance has to offer any fight, bar none.”_

And yet because Reyes knew that being a biotic wasn’t precisely what everyone thought it was, he also knew there could be differences in the fabric of the two galaxies that changed everything. He had to hope that this was not the case.

_“You now live a life shrouded in secrecy and shadow, asleep as you wait, tasked only with ensuring you become better, always better, than what even we have made you.”_

His body shimmered blue, energy swirling together with his own aura, and Reyes was relieved to find that he _could_ see, after all. He noted that he was definitely in some kind of refrigeration module, barely any bigger than the table he was strapped to.

_“Captain Vidal, you have gone above and beyond in your mastery of magic and your weapons of choice. You will report to Admiral Hackett for assignment after a two-week shore leave.”_

_“Yes, sir!” he saluted flawlessly._

Slowly the blue, shimmering, sparkling light that covered him head to toe morphed as Reyes threw his full concentration into it. “ _Tráeme el fuego, de la luz al calor,_ ” he murmured. “ _¡Transformame en una llama azul caliente, a nivel dos!_ ”

And just like that, he burst into flame. _Blue_ flame. Hotter than most heating elements in the fanciest laboratories could get. The metal around his wrists, chest, hips and ankles melted within two seconds, as did the table. Reyes hopped away from what was left of it, took a few moments to steady himself and barked, “ _¡Al final!_ ”

The refrigeration unit that had been keeping his tiny module cold, sputtered and died, giving into incredible heat it couldn’t combat. Reyes held out his right hand and whispered, “ _Bola de luz_.” In his palm there appeared a blue-white ball of light some two inches in diameter, so brilliant that it lit the entirety of the room. His eyes scanned very quickly and there was only one obvious way out – the door of the module, which was seamless and had no handle or any other way to get out from the inside.

_“Captain Vidal, I’ve read your file and heard a lot about you from Colonel Tracy. I have to say, you’re rivalling to be the best SCAMP has churned out yet since we started it a decade ago.”_

_“Thank you, Admiral. That is indeed a compliment given that your first covert graduate was Commander John Shepard.”_

_Hackett smiled. “He’s something else, I’ll give you that. You two would make an unbeatable team, but I’m afraid there’s something else even bigger than Shepard for you to take on.” He leaned back in his chair. “I’m reluctant to do this because I don’t want to lose you, but we’ve had a request made of us that those above me are inclined to fulfill.”_

_“Sir?”_

_After what seemed to be a brief duel inside his own mind, Hackett rose to his feet. “Report to Jien Garson in New York City. Date, time and address will be forwarded to your omnitool. This is top secret, eyes only stuff, Captain.”_

_Reyes stood ramrod straight and saluted, only finding out the next morning when he met with Garson, what this was all about._

He had no idea where he was, how many people were outside guarding him, waiting to take potshots at him. But Reyes also knew he couldn’t keep Scott wondering at his whereabouts. And so he ordered up his full-body flame again, only this time to Level 5 rather than 2. Within forty-five seconds he’d managed to burn his way through the side of the room, which he had rightly surmised would be thinner than the door.

_He was leaving the Milky Way. Unbeknownst to anyone other than Jien Garson, his entire existence was to be centered around the human Pathfinder, Alec Ryder. All his training was going to be vital, she’d explained, in supporting the Pathfinder, keeping him safe and alive, and eventually, teaching what he knew from SCAMP and Aichi to others with biotic capabilities so that all in Andromeda would come to learn the truth about biotics and the SCAMP program._

The burn-through got him into a huge warehouse that had to be at least two American football fields in size. It was full of the same types of refrigerated containers that he’d been held in. Curious, he walked up to the closest module, unhooked the very simplistic metal bar from the door handle that kept it locked and pulled the handle quickly. The door gave way and Reyes stepped up into the module.

It contained the same table with the same kinds of shackles as the one he’d been strapped to. On it was a human woman who appeared to have seen better days. She was probably in her thirties, filthy, smelled homeless and was unconscious. _What is going on?_ Reyes wondered. He checked the next module. Another filthy, smelly person, this time an older male. Also unconscious. The next contained a young lady who was very well maintained, clearly, based on her cleanliness and her clean clothing. She, too, was unconscious.

That’s when Reyes smelled it. These people were being kept unconscious, probably by some drug misted into their modules through the refrigeration units. Why he hadn’t also been drugged in a similar fashion he couldn’t answer, but it seemed his companions saw no such luck.

 _The_ Nexus _uprising had changed everything. Garson’s death had meant nobody else knew why Reyes had been chosen to make the journey with the first wave of settlers. And then Alec Ryder had perished, and for weeks nobody had known anything beyond that._

And then there was Scott. Completely unexpected, untested, untrained, unbelievable Scott.

Reyes could only imagine what would happen if he told this particular truth, but he _had_ promised himself to, after all. Would Scott think Reyes had targeted him to fulfill his original orders from Hackett about his role in the Pathfinder’s life? How could he, given that Reyes had never tried to join Scott on any battlefield, nor asked anything from him that went beyond getting help on Kadara, for Kadara’s problems? However, before Reyes could tell Scott or not, he first needed to get out of here. Wherever ‘here’ was.

He knew if he didn’t escape there’d also be nobody to tell anyone about whatever it was that was going on here. He had to get away, find Scott, get help, return with dozens of soldiers, rescue these people. In that order. And so he turned to face the nearest warehouse wall and barreled toward it, all the while stating out loud and very firmly, “ _Tráeme el fuego, de la luz al calor_. _¡Transformame en una llama azul caliente, a nivel cinco!_ ”

In the space of a heartbeat he barreled right through the wall, melting it to nothing within his wake. Reyes found himself quickly surrounded by more than fifty soldiers Many seemed angaran, but the rest were made up of…

“Kett,” he breathed.

Every one of them drew a weapon on him. Before he could make sense of what was happening, a dart hit his arm and he collapsed to the ground in the very same moment that he realized he’d been poisoned.

Then a very familiar face came into his dwindling vision. Short-cropped blonde hair. She crouched next to him and tsked three times. “Too bad, _Charlatan_ ,” she cooed. “Looks like you’ve earned a one-way ticket to the hurt locker.” She returned to standing her full height and barked, “Change of plans. Take him to the transport center. He’s going straight to Primus.”

Reyes’ blood curdled in his veins. He had to warn Ryder…

And then he was gone.


	9. Friendship and Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott's BFF Gil helps him find the scene of the crime, but what they uncover chills them to the bone, for they have been betrayed...

Scott knew he had to be more careful than he would if it were anyone other than Reyes who was missing. Gil and Keema knew, but beyond that there could be very little said openly. For who would care so much about some missing smuggler to send the entire _Tempest_ crew and both human Pathfinders to locate him? Truth be told, even if everyone knew Reyes was the Charlatan, a lot of people would still be happy to see him taken out. Greed knew no bounds on Kadara or anywhere, really, no matter how much Scott, Sara and their teams tried to change things for the better.

It was taking every ounce of his military-bred control for Scott to stay focused. He’d managed to use his Pathfinder status to take a fast ship from Meridian to Kadara, and then get his hands on one of the new hover cars thanks to Keema, and now he and Gil were streaking past Ditaeon at breakneck speeds – with Gil at the helm, of course, given that Scott was far too busy using both SAM and his omnitool to scan for signs of the Bloodmaw and Reyes. Scott called Sara, who was way the hell out near Voeld with most of Scott’s own _Tempest_ crew _and_ her own as they completed their two-month-long training run with Sara’s new crewmembers to ensure her team would function at the same high levels as Scott’s had.

After all, if Scott was going to have _Tempest_ for six months and then Sara took the next six months, at least until they got a second ship built exclusively for her, they couldn’t work the same people for an entire year with no break. And so she’d hand-picked her own team. This time around, though, it had meant leaving Gil behind on Meridian to be the point man for building Sara’s ship, which was to be named the _Artemis_ after her favorite Greek goddess.

Gil had been liaising with Kallo, who was training another Salarian named Soobu on how to fly the _Tempest_ class ships. Gil was also working closely with Gynni, the engineer who’d be in charge of the _Tempest_ during Gil’s shore leaves and, eventually, over _Artemis_ ’ engines. All had been going very well indeed until ‘the call.’

Now, Gil’s normally relaxed face was tight-lipped and lined with worry and concentration while Scott’s formerly light-as-a-feather joyous demeanor had been replaced with stomach-twisting dread and fear.

“Is there anyone else we can safely get help from?” Gil asked.

“I need to know more about what happened first,” Scott replied tersely. “Calling out any sized cavalry might tip our hand that we know he’s gone. And there…we can’t overlook the possibility of a traitor hiding in someone we know.”

“Do you think it was someone after the Charlatan, or just Reyes the smuggler, like Zia had been? Maybe someone that had something to do with the former regime, Kaetus perhaps?”

“No,” Scott replied, though it gave him no happiness to admit that because it meant, “I think it’s someone after me.” He sighed and his shoulders sagged even as he continued to watch the scan results flitting across his omnitool’s holographic screen.

“Are you serious?” Gil asked as he zipped around a group of boulders that would’ve killed them both if he’d smashed the hover car into them. “All right, who are your enemies and who among them knows you are Vidal are that close?”

“Well, as far as enemies, discounting the kett and any Roekaar who still hate us, I guess anyone I took out of power, like Outlaw factions. Kaetus, maybe, yes, given that he was involved with Sloane,” Scott answered quickly. “But like you said, it would’ve had to have been someone who knows Reyes is important enough for me to both notice and to give a shit that he’s been taken.”

Gil didn’t speak the other alternative. He knew better. Knew how it’d affect _him_ if he were in Scott’s place right now. Had to be positive. Optimistic. For Scott’s sake, if nothing else.

“So Kateus didn’t know about you two?”

“We never acted differently in public, especially not while on Kadara, which is where Reyes is best known,” Scott replied, shaking his head. “Only when we felt safe and secure were we demonstrative, which was, come to think of it, only at our hideaway on Ryder 1. That’s where we were the whole time I was on leave, but we hardly left the buildings so as not to be seen even there.”

“Yeah, I mean, even I didn’t know and I’d like to think I’m one of your best friends.”

“You are _the_ best friend, Gil,” Scott said quietly, offering Gil a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s just…we know we have to be careful.”

“Thanks, Ryder. That means a lot. And yeah, I get it.”

Scott nodded, chest constricting. He felt the urge to all-out panic come over him. His breathing became shallow. “I just…I _knew_ , Gil.” Tears filled his eyes. Tears mostly of guilt. What if Reyes got hurt? Tortured? Worse? All because he ignored the fear of the last morning they’d been together? “I had the mother of all panic attacks when…SAM, I can’t…”

SAM proceeded to fill Gil in with a very brief description of where Reyes and Scott had disappeared to for a month, completing the story with a short explanation of what was panicking Scott the morning they were parting ways, and how he’d gotten past that panic.

“So the whole thing was that after just one more month, he was essentially moving in with you. At least as far as the _Tempest_ is concerned.”

Scott nodded. “I let that positive step forward toward ensuring his safety remove from me the gut-wrenching fear that kept me from getting any sleep at all that night. If I had listened to that, if I had not allowed Reyes to return here at all, or at the very least ordered bodyguards or something, I…” Scott slammed his head back against the headrest. “Fuck, Gil. Just…fuck.”

Silence ensued, broken only by the high-pitched whine of the vehicle as it raced toward the area that Bloodmaw’s last ping came from. At some point in the proceedings Gil whispered, “I’m sorry. But I’ll help you however I can, Scott.”

Scott nodded. Reached out, squeezed Gil’s forearm. “Thanks,” he whispered.

A few more minutes passed with Scott watching for any signs of—

“Here, here, here!” Scott cried, tearing his eyes from the omnitool to look out the front window as Gil quickly brought up the air brakes to stop them fast, but not fast enough to break their necks.

The Bloodmaw was upside-down on a large patch of sparse grass that had begun growing on the planet’s surface, sparks shooting up from various places and points all over the vehicle, top to bottom and front to back. Scott and Gil were out of their car lickety-split, with Scott hollering “Reyes!” at the top of his lungs as the men approached, Scott on the driver’s side, Gil around to the passenger’s side.

“Rey, _talk_ to me!” Scott cried, diving to his knees to look into the smashed driver’s side window.

But Bloodmaw was empty, save for Scott’s black and red jacket, which he’d lent to Reyes upon parting ways on Ryder 1. He grabbed it, pulled it to his face and let the tears stream from his eyes as his love’s scent washed over him, cascading _loss_ and _fear_ and gut-wrenching _love_ through every cell of his body.

“Ryder?” Gil said tentatively as he sank to his knees next to his commanding officer…and best friend. He held his hand out as Scott opened his eyes and searched his face. “There’s…here.” Gil handed Scott a small, round recording device that was blinking green, which meant there was something recorded on it.

It took a moment for Scott to bring himself back to his senses. He grabbed the device from Gil, ran back to their borrowed hover car, and stuck it into the all-purpose player embedded in the car’s dash. “SAM, make that thing play,” he ordered.

“Right away, Scott.” A few moments of silence. “It would appear that the device did not contain any recordings until it was apparently switched on by being hit unexpectedly hard, perhaps during the accident that left the Bloodmaw in its current state.”

“That was no accident,” Scott growled. “Play it.”

A lot of yelling was the first thing they heard, mostly in kett, some in angaran. Then words in Common being barked by a female. As the voice got closer and closer to the device, which Gil said he’d found on the car’s ceiling near the passenger seat, Scott’s blood ran colder and colder. He and Gil locked eyes, disbelief showing on both faces.

“Get him out of there now, while he’s still unconscious!” the all-too-familiar female voice ordered. “I want him sedated and taken to Site 8 _now_!”

“You said the Pathfinder would be with him,” came a male’s voice, this one thick with accent and much deeper in timbre.

“He must not have finished on Meridian yet. Anyway, this is better,” the female replied. “Now we can lure him into a construct of our design, where we can fight from a better vantage point than out here in the open.”

“Why would the Pathfinder risk his neck to come and find this two-bit smuggler?”

“Oh, honey,” and there was no mistaking it now, no averting his thoughts and hoping and praying he was wrong. Scott felt his insides twist into millions of tiny little knots as she continued. “You have no idea who this man really is, and you _really_ have no idea how important he is to a certain human Pathfinder.” She laughed quietly. “Luckily, I do.”

“That can’t be Cora,” Gil whispered, unwilling or maybe just unable to believe what they had heard.

SAM chimed in. “I have matched the voice to an error ratio of two-point-three percent. Confirmed that it belongs to Cora Harper. The other voice –”

“I know who the other voice is,” Scott said in a quiet way that made Gil’s hair stand on end for the unhidden venom underlying his every word. “I’ll never forget it. That’s Akksul.”

“The Roekaar leader?” Gil asked incredulously. “I thought after shooting Jaal in the face he slunk away in disgrace.”

“And apparently teamed up with the Initiative after all,” Scott spat. “And that fucking…the kett…oh, my God…” He was trembling, only this time it was with an anger the likes of which he had never felt burning through his body and igniting his very soul. “SAM, I want Jaal and Sara on the line, private channel, as encrypted as you can make it. It must be completely secure, zero degree of error.”

“Yes, Scott.”

“What are we going to do?”

“She mentioned Site 8 in the recording,” Scott stated, scrubbing a hand down his now-hardened face. “Reyes had initiated new excursions to start exploring the rest of Kadara beyond the currently habitable boundaries. In all, during our month’s absence, the teams explored fourteen sites, only five of which seemed poised to handle new cities or outposts within the next six months. One of the first things we were going to do when back aboard the _Tempest_ was start looking at each of them report by report to see where we might want to begin the expansion effort.”

“When back aboard the _Tempest_ – I get it now. He isn’t going to just quit everything here to be with you. The plan is for him to still do what the Charlatan does, but from somewhere safe, where you can protect him.”

Scott’s face softened into sadness. “Yes. That was the part of the discussion SAM left out – thanks for the privacy, SAM, but listen, no more secrets from Gil, okay?”

“Very well, Scott.”

“I won’t abuse your trust.”

“I know you won’t,” Scott replied quietly. “We decided that Reyes was going to come with me, run things on Kadara from my quarters on _Tempest_ and then help out with other stuff on board like any other crewmember. We just…neither of us could…” He sighed, hitched a sob back to keep it in his chest. Shrugged at his inability to keep speaking.

“You couldn’t stand to be apart?”

“Something like that, yeah. Especially not knowing how long I might potentially be gone on any given assignment. It…wasn’t an arrangement we were ever going to be satisfied with.”

Gil’s hand came to rest on his friend’s shoulder. He squeezed. “We’ll get him back, Ryder.”

“I…I know.”


	10. Of Allies, Enemies, Friends and Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are more hidden memories of Alec Ryder's that shed a terrible new light on allies-turned-enemies. Everyone involved has something at stake that won't just go away, but only as a cohesive team - maybe with a new addition - can the foursome on Kadara hope to stop the terrible events that have been put in motion by betrayal.

“Pathfinder, Sara and Jaal are on a line that is directly connected through your two implants. I have made the connection audible via your auditory implant connection through your encrypted personal omnitools so Jaal and Gil are included. Only the four of you will be able to hear any of this. And me, of course.”

“Nicely done, SAM,” Jaal commented.

“Scott? What’s going on?” Sara asked. “We’re secure in the _Tempest_ ’s captain’s quarters like SAM asked.”

“Is everything okay?” Jaal then chimed in.

“No, guys,” Gil said as Scott visibly struggled, his internal battle showing all over his face. “We’ve got a huge problem, and it involves the kett, the angara and the Initiative.”

“How?” Jaal asked, voice laden with concern.

“Scott?” Sara said when she got a good look at her twin’s face. “Why have you been crying?”

“It’s Reyes,” he whispered. “They’ve taken him.”

“Who has?” Jaal asked, instantaneously on the defensive like he would kick anyone’s ass who dared mess with a Ryder twin, regardless which one it was.

“Cora,” Gil replied.

Sara gasped.

“And Akksul,” Scott added.

Jaal’s very expressive face morphed into a mask of pure rage. “Then we will get him back and Akksul will _not_ be allowed to just walk away this time.”

“The kett are involved, too. There was a recording…accidentally triggered…we heard them all.” Scott shook his head. “Jaal, you of all people…”

“I know,” Jaal said quietly. It was obvious his mind had gone the same place Scott’s had: exaltation.

Sara’s resolved matched that of the angaran seated next to her on the Pathfinder’s _Tempest_ bed. “But Cora? How?” she asked. “ _Why_?”

“Pathfinders,” SAM said from Scott’s omnitool, “I have been analyzing several different facets of what happened to Mr. Vidal and have uncovered a surprising correlation regarding Cora.”

“What’s that?” Scott asked.

“Have you ever heard of Cerberus?” SAM asked.

“Peripherally, yeah. Humans-First group, full of high tech, funded by deep pockets. But that was back in the Milky Way. So what?”

“They’re not here, are they?” Sara asked. “I had a run-in with them at a Prothean dig site. They’re kind of a bunch of assholes. They just bully their way into taking whatever they want. I would’ve thought the Andromeda Initiative would’ve screened them out of traveling here.”

“Unless they didn’t make the connection,” SAM said. “There is a thirty-seven-point-six-three percent chance that Cora is part of Cerberus.”

“How are you calculating that?” Scott asked. “Based on what?”

“Embedded in one of your father’s memory logs, the last one we were able to open, there was a line of code so hidden that it has taken three months for me to even realize it was present. On a…hunch…I just completed decoding and defragmenting it, then listened to it.”

“A hunch? AIs can have hunches?” Gil asked.

“He’s becoming more human all the time,” Scott said, pride lacing his voice despite the situation. “Play the recording, SAM.”

The Ryder twins were shocked to hear their father’s voice. _“I’m concerned beyond my previous suspicions. When the time comes to transfer Pathfinder duties, I unfortunately will not be able to give them to Cora Harper.”_

Scott’s and Sara’s eyes locked across the grainy picture from his omnitool.

“ _I had originally believed I would have to recuse her from the Pathfinder training program because it seemed she was unable to plan and lead on her own. That she needed to follow another, which is nothing at all like what a Pathfinder needs to be capable of. But while that assessment was indeed accurate, I’ve uncovered an even greater threat not just to the Andromeda Initiative, but to everyone in the Heleus Cluster.”_

Gil frowned as he and Scott looked at one another. What was going on with this woman to whom they, and everyone else aboard _Tempest_ , had entrusted their very lives?

_“I ran some DNA comparisons and the results were available for me as soon as I was awakened from cryo in the Heleus Cluster. What they tell me is disturbing. Apparently, the reason Cora was raised in poverty on a freighter is that she is one of two children that Jack Harper left behind with his wife when he embarked upon his role in the First Contact War and subsequently didn’t return to his family.”_

“Oh, my God,” Scott breathed. For he had heard about Jack Harper before from Alec, though he’d never quite made the connection to Cora. After all, lots of people had the same last name. Didn’t mean they were related.

_“I also took part in that war, and I knew Jack when he broke a splinter group off Alliance forces. A group he eventually called Cerberus. A group he wanted me to become part of.”_

“Her father is the head of _Cerberus_?” Gil practically squeaked in disbelief.

_“I don’t know if Cora’s even aware of who her father is, let alone whether that information would impact her performance as my second-in-command. I know now, regardless, that I will be passing Pathfinder duties along to Scott and Sara jointly when the time comes. And I will spend some time with them explaining what SAM and I have uncovered. I think I need more than just me figuring out what to do here. And three smart minds working with an AI are better than one for something this potentially explosive.”_

“That is the end of the recording, Pathfinders,” SAM informed them.

For a long moment, no one spoke. Then Scott asked, “SAM, is this another thing he had you do and then blocked so you wouldn’t remember, like putting Mom into cryo?”

“I’m afraid so, Scott.”

“What do you want us to do?” Jaal asked. “I can work the Akksul angle with our people if that would be beneficial.”

“And I can ask Davis to help me out where Cora’s concerned,” Gil piped up. When Scott expressed surprise, he added, “Look, you all aren’t the only ones with secrets, okay?”

“Davis? You mean Qar? The HNS guy?” Sara asked.

Gil had the good grace to blush, but didn’t directly answer her, keeping his focus on _his_ Ryder.

“How can Davis help with Cora?” Scott asked.

“I can’t divulge too much, especially without his permission,” Gil stated apologetically. “Suffice it to say there’s a reason he uncovers and broadcasts a lot of things that people thought were hidden.”

Scott nodded. “Okay, yes. You work Davis for whatever he can find out, Gil, but stress and I mean _stress_ that this has to be done discreetly and do _not_ say anything about Reyes or the Charlatan.”

“You got it.”

Scott turned his attention to the omnitool screen. “Jaal, go after Akksul. I want to know what he’s been doing since the day he shot you, where he’s been holed up. I know you all have the family angles to play, so hit them. Hard.”

“You bet,” Jaal responded with a nod.

“Sara, I think they have Reyes here on Kadara, and I think I might even know where. But I can’t storm the place alone. Can I get you and Jaal here to help?”

“Right away. We haven’t landed on Voeld yet and it was only for a training run. I can cut it short, give some excuse, and get us to Kadara in no time.”

“What about the kett?” Jaal asked. “If they are involved, that means Primus. And since you did not take her deal…”

Scott rubbed his forehead. Gil, noting the telltale signs, quickly massaged just under the base of Scott’s skull, as he’d learned to do in their time serving aboard _Tempest_ together. Scott shot him a grateful look, then shook his head as he looked down at the wavering, grainy image of Sara and Jaal to sat plastered against each other like Siamese twins.

“Reyes has a spy network that spans the Cluster,” Scott revealed. “I’m going to have to put Keema on this angle to get eyes on where the kett are, what they’re doing. Specifically where Primus is, too. If someone revealed me and Reyes to her, she most definitely would use it against me.”

“And Akksul would quite happily be party to it,” Jaal observed with disgust.

Scott nodded. “Now, listen, everyone. I know that my former _Tempest_ crew all know Reyes is the Charlatan because we were all either there or listening in during the duel that never took place.”

Everyone nodded.

“Our crew also know that he and I hang out together sometimes, that we’re friends. Every time I’m in Kadara I head first to Tartarus.” He shook his head. “I guess I was never discreet. But I will also tell you that on two different visits I made to Reyes, one time Cora and Liam were with me and one time it was Cora and Drack. Only Cora made any comment. We walked into a building where we were supposed to meet Reyes before heading out on a job together, but the place was empty. When I commented on the fact that he should be there, Cora asked if I was lonely, and then all hell broke loose. But only the four of us sitting right here, and Keema Dorghun – well, and Umi from Kralla’s Song – know of a truly serious relationship, as far as I’m aware.”

“You need us to not tell anyone what’s going on,” Sara offered.

“Exactly. Obviously Cora figured it out based on that comment. Drack may have suspected, I have no idea. But the one I’m not sure about is Liam. And I think he’s my other concern.”

“Liam?” Gil asked. “You’ve got to be kidding, that arse? How so?”

“Listen, the facts are this,” Scott stated, ticking them off on his fingers as he went. “One: Cora was not my choice for a crewmember. Two: she was passed over by Dad for a role she’d been training for, for years, before we’d even left the Milky Way. Three: Liam was not my choice for a crewmember. Four: Every time he initiated something that he claimed to be for the greater good, it ended in a disaster – in one case, he nearly got me killed on some derelict kett ship.”

“And getting you killed would have paved the way for Cora to become Pathfinder back then because Sara was still in a coma,” Gil observed.

“Which would have,” Jaal interjected, “put her in charge of all the Initiative’s endeavors in Heleus.” He grabbed Sara’s hand protectively. “She could easily have killed Sara as well, and everyone would have thought it a result of what happened with her stasis pod.”

Sara leaned her head on his shoulder and stroked his arm, like trying to calm a very large, wild cat who was about to become really pissed off.

“And,” Gil added, “if Cora became Pathfinder, then that would make Liam the backup from the Initiative’s standpoint.”

“But what about me?” Sara asked. “Like Jaal said, I would have been a target, too.”

“Yes,” Scott acknowledged. “Which means that you’re in just as much danger as I am right now. And if they’re willing to use Reyes to get to me…”

Sara looked at Jaal and said, “Then they’d be willing to use _you_ to get to _me_.”

“Oh, dear,” Jaal whispered, and Scott swore the angaran man’s colorful skin went a shade lighter.

“What I don’t understand,” Gil stated, “in all of this…how would Cora have known your attachment to Vidal was so profound that kidnapping him would lure you or goad you into going after him? I didn’t even know you two were romantically entangled and I’m your best friend!”

The four of them remained quiet until Scott’s blood felt like it was freezing in his veins as a thought occurred to him. “Liam.”

“What about him?” Gil asked.

“Reyes and I were joking just the other day that he thought Liam had a thing for Keema. That she acted giddy when she was around him, and that he paid her way more attention than anyone else at the Port. Rey was convinced they’re having a thing of some sort.”

“So?” Sara asked. “How do you leap from ‘Liam and Keema like each other’ to ‘Liam is aware enough that Reyes-and-Scott are a thing that he advises Cora to kidnap Reyes because Scott will definitely go after him’?”

“What if Liam and Keema _are_ having a thing?” Gil asked. “What if it’s more a thing than you realize, and she figures it’s safe to hint because Liam’s one of your trusted team members, who already knows Reyes is the Charlatan?”

“Pillow talk?” Sara asked. “Shit.”

“It’s an angle I have to at least check out,” Scott acknowledged wearily. “I’m heading back to the Port to find Keema. Gil, while we’re on the way, contact Davis. I’ll turn on the sound blockers in my aural implants so you can speak freely.” Gil nodded in acknowledgement. “Sara, get that ship back here under any pretense you can, and go back over all the evidence SAM and I found when we were investigating Jien Garson’s murder.”

“Wait, you think…oh, my God, of course. If Cerberus sent operatives to establish a presence in Andromeda, then Garson’s murder could’ve been one of the first steps.”

“And the Benefactor,” Scott said with a nod. “Don’t forget how suspicious both Dad and Jien were about who the Benefactor is, what his or her motivations are.”

“It could be Cerberus!” Sara exclaimed.

“Exactly. Which would then explain why they might kill her.”

“I’m on it,” she confirmed.

“Thanks, sis. And Jaal, for God’s sake, be careful.”

“Understood. I’ll find Akksul, Scott. You have my word.”

“Okay,” Scott said as Gil started up the hover car. “We have our tasks. And right now, we only have the four of us to keep each other safe. So no matter what else we do, let’s make that our top priority, okay?”

“Five,” Gil corrected him as he said to the hover car, “Open secure line to Davis Qar.”

“Opening secure line,” the tinny female car voice stated.

Scott felt better that he was finally doing something constructive rather than just sitting and fretting about what was happening. _Hold on, cariño,_ he thought, willing his heart to not start thudding again. _I’m coming for you._


	11. Aching (and Nanos)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyes longs to be back where he was happiest with Scott, while Scott and his team grasp at straws for ways to actually make a rescue work.

The next time Reyes woke up, he felt as though every bone in his body had been broken, reset and then broken again for good measure. Everything hurt and it took him several minutes of swimming to the surface of consciousness to understand that whatever had been in the dart hadn’t been a poison at all, but instead a blocker of some sort. He tried, eyes still closed, to summon some of his magic – _any_ of it – to no avail. Whatever was in his blood was effectively separating him from reaching across the Divide and grabbing mana.

_Mierda_ , he thought tiredly as his hearing began tuning in to his surroundings.

Which turned into _I’m fucked_ when he realized that the language he was hearing around him wasn’t Common or angaran, but _kett_. Shit squared.

Though he could not tell whether he was bound this time, whatever was blocking his magic also seemed to be hampering his ability to move. He couldn’t even pry his eyelids open. Not a finger would lift, not a lip, twitch. The air wasn’t cold, he didn’t think. In fact, it felt more Kadara-like – since Scott had reactivated the vault, of course – and part of him was relieved that he’d not been taken off-planet.

Yes, there was the sound of a bird he was familiar with, one which loved to make a long, hooting call, though he had yet to actually see said bird in the flesh. Whatever was happening…which he now knew had to do with one of the most complete betrayals ever recorded, in progress, in the form of Cora…it was going down on Kadara. Which meant Scott would have been able to get there very quickly, from Meridian. He was probably already planetside with Keema, trying to find out what had happened.

For the first time since his SCAMP days, Reyes began to doubt his chances for survival. If the kett were involved, along with some angry faction of angara, and if Scott didn’t know about Cora’s betrayal, then Reyes was the bait that would also take Scott, and the two of them would be in some way disposed of to achieve whatever ends were the final goals of it all. Considering they were dealing with the kett, exaltation was first and foremost on Reyes’ mind, and though he didn’t really savor the idea of it happening to him, where it sucker-punched him hardest was in thinking of Scott being transformed into one of those…things.

His Pathfinder was so many things, all of them varied and yet intricately part of his personality. He loved to dance, slow or fast, it didn’t matter. That was one of the reasons for the huge block party they’d been planning, to give his man the venue he’d been lacking to really allow himself the fancy footwork he loved to do but no longer really had a place to do it in. He sang, and not altogether that badly, though he never did more with it than just sing along to songs. He adored music and had the most eclectic tastes. From musical numbers to love songs, from hard dance music to pop and especially – surprisingly – absolutely _loved_ Latino music, particularly a few artists that Reyes also favored.

_That Scott could dance a mean salsa and rumba, and had laughingly led Reyes in a flawless rendition of the Argentine tango at one point, prompted Reyes to ask, “Is there anything you’re_ not _good at?”_

_To which Scott replied, “Knowing when to back down. Back away. Let go.” He shrugged. “My emotions tend to get the better of me. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’m military trained but I have a really hard time keeping my face neutral.”_

_Reyes moved in and whispered, “Lucky for me or we may have never discovered that this was more than a mere distraction,” before kissing him for a very, very long time._

The memory brought mist to his eyes – at least, Reyes thought it did; not that he could really tell at this point. There was so much life, so much _love_ in the man he’d lost his heart to…to think of everything Scott Ryder was just suddenly being _gone_ , evaporated into a mindless kett drone, handed a gun and forced to shoot everyone he’d ever cared about? It made Reyes feel physically ill. Never mind SAM – what would become of him? The kett knew about SAM and his power. The Archon had very nearly killed Sara and Scott both thanks to that.

Now Reyes maybe understood a little bit better the anguish of the angara people upon learning the truth of exactly who it was they’d been pointing their weapons at all this time. His stomach bottomed out for the second time in a row and found that he was no longer certain that he wanted Scott to come looking for him. Better that Scott lose Reyes, after all, than himself.

Despair, regret and resignation crept into the very edges of his consciousness as Scott’s face appeared in his mind’s eye, smiling that secret smile reserved only for him. The electric blue eyes piercing through to his very soul. The slow blink he did when he was imagining all the things he wanted to do to Reyes before throwing caution to the wind and starting on them.

Oh, to see that face, those eyes, that smile, once more. To feel those smooth thumbs brush his cheeks…whenever Scott did that one small thing, Reyes whined in ways that were so embarrassing that he hated himself for it. But that act felt so…intimate to him, so invasive, that when Scott did it with the tenderness he always did it with, while staring into his eyes as if he already knew the Charlatan inside and out and was just waiting for him to catch on to that fact…well, Reyes turned to complete mush. The King of Kadara, reduced to so much putty in the Pathfinder’s hands because of a look and a gesture.

Reyes ached now, only instead of being from his body, it was coming from his heart.

* * *

The team reached Site 8 using the maps Scott and Reyes had been working from for the joint initiative they’d undertaken to start settling other parts of Kadara. Essentially, Site 8 was a very large, very deep valley surrounded by cliffs where grass and wildflowers were beginning to grow again. Many caves dotted the cliff face, and there was only one way in at ground level and one way out. They had thought to start sending teams into the caves to see if those would provide other exits, but those were all decisions and actions they’d intended to take after Reyes had joined Scott on the _Tempest._

Jaal and Sara were on the northern side of the cliffs at high ground level, rather than down in the valley, well-hidden behind a bank of rocks jutting out from the top of a cliff. There wasn’t a single soul up there with them, leaving them fairly safe for the moment. Within the valley surrounded by the mostly-sheer cliff face there were literally hundreds upon hundreds of what appeared to be refrigerated units. Scott and Gil, from their position on the southern rim of the site almost directly opposite Jaal and Sara, wondered aloud at what they were for, but no answer they posited seemed to bear out under scrutiny. The only thing Scott knew for certain was that these containers had not been there four weeks ago when the scouting report had been received while he and Reyes were still at the hideaway on Ryder 1.

As they had feared, there were both kett and angara roaming the valley, though as Scott studied their movements, patterns and weaponry through the ocular enlargement range SAM was enabling within his eyes, he noted something odd…out of place. “Guys,” he whispered, knowing that only Gil and Sara could hear him right now since Jaal wasn’t connected to SAM in any way. “Take a look at the unit that’s about four deep from the eastern side, and…one, two, three…about eight in from the north.”

Gil focused his binoculars and Sara used her own SAM enhancements to get eyes on it while relaying to Jaal to eyeball the scene through the binoculars they had with them. “That unit looks like it’s been…what, melted through?” Sara observed.

“Exactly,” Scott confirmed. It’s as if something that was inside of it burned its way out.” He rocked back on his heels. “I suppose biotics could do that, depending on what you were doing with them.”

“What, a cluster grenade?” Sara asked. “Nova, maybe?”

“Those don’t look like explosive marks, however,” Jaal observed. “The edges are smooth, not torn. It would take very high temperatures indeed for the metal of those refrigeration units to be melted to that degree, at least, from what I can tell at this distance.”

It was becoming somewhat inconvenient for Sara to have to relay everything Jaal said to Scott, and then Scott to Gil, and vice-versa, and Sara pointed out not only the annoyance, but that it could become dangerous as they drew closer to search for Reyes.

“Why not just use our auditory implants?” Scott asked.

“Those can be hacked,” Gil advised. “Trust me,” he confirmed at Scott’s surprised look. “Or rather, trust Davis. He’s managed to hack into the _Tempest_ crew’s ears and is monitoring it as we speak.”

“Good God, has been able to do that all along?” Sara squeaked.

“Yes, but he did mention that it had never occurred to him.”

When the tips of Gil’s ears pinked noticeably, Scott quipped, “I’ll bet that’s not all he mentioned.”

“Shuddup, you,” Gil groused as he gently elbowed Scott’s arm. “Seriously, though, I know our auditories can’t be activated unless we press on that one spot just before our ears, but I can’t be constantly asking Scott what’s happening with Sara and Jaal. Someone will hear us. It could put all our lives in danger not knowing what’s going on every moment with the rest of the team.”

“If I may,” came SAM into Sara’s and Scott’s implants, “there is a suggestion I wish to make, though I do not make it lightly, for it has never been done before. Thus, while I can calculate potential risks and consequences, it is all purely theoretical.”

Scott and Sara told their companions to hold on, then Sara said, “Go ahead, SAM.”

“I am eighty-three-point-two-four percent certain that my suggestion will afford you the ability to remain in live contact at all times, unless you ask me to turn off someone’s ability to hear and think in return.”

Given that both Sara and Scott already knew, and had mastered, the art of thinking to SAM versus speaking to him, Scott thought, “Okay, let’s hear it.”

“Scott, do you remember when the Archon gained access to your memories through me at the point at which I stopped your heart?”

“Yes, I remember talking to Suvi about it. She said everything was wide open between the time my heart stopped and when you got it beating again. I never understood how he got hold of the memories, though, and how he managed to access and control Sara, when all he had done was take a sample of my blood.”

“The answer stems from how my implant works within the human body,” SAM began. “If you recall, your mother’s primary field of focus originally was implants for biotics. L2 and L3 specifically.”

“Yeah, she studied biotics her entire career until she started working with Dad when he was getting ready to create you,” Sara replied.

“Correct,” SAM acknowledged. “One of the most troublesome aspects of their collusion was trying to understand how to make one implant – mine – interact with your physical bodies the way a biotic implant is able to both interact with your bodies and help you control and redirect the actual action taken internally.”

“Lost me,” Sara admitted.

“Ditto,” said Scott.

“A biotic implant helps a human focus the mass effect fields into desired states, such as push, pull, slam and so forth. It does so by taking your thoughts and creating a focal point, which then stimulates the correct areas of the brain to direct the power into the conduit you’re attempting to redirect it through.”

“You mean it turns thought into action?” Scott asked.

“That is a close enough approximation. But the difficulty where my own implants were concerned, was that I wasn’t being used to enhance something existing, such as the biotic capabilities that Scott has. For example, I had the ability to alter Alec’s abilities based on predetermined types, such as Vanguard, Soldier and Defender. As you now know, this gives me the ability to increase certain capabilities and decrease others specifically to align with whatever your needs are in any given scenario. I can do the same with Scott and to a lesser degree with Sara simply because she is _not_ biotic.”

“But you can also do things like enable us to see with our own eyes the way we could if we were holding binoculars to them,” Scott stated. “Like we’re doing right now.”

“Exactly,” SAM confirmed. “Have you never wondered how that’s accomplished?”

“Some Science nerd you are,” Sara chided her twin.

Scott snorted. “Okay, SAM, we give up. How is that accomplished?”

“Nano technology,” SAM revealed. “The SAM implants in your brains are the nerve center of my capabilities within your physical bodies. My brain within your brain, as it were. However, in spite of the fact that I can activate or suppress many capabilities simply by affecting various parts of your brains, I don’t _touch_ every part of your brain. That means I cannot stimulate every part of your brain through one single implant any more than I can gather your sensations as input, such as touch, for example. Your brain interprets what you’re touching and in a limited sense I would therefore know that a wall is hard, smooth and cold, or that a person’s skin was soft, warm and pliable. But without the nano technology I would not understand the context, the actual _feel_ of what you are defining in your mind.”

There were moments of silence. Gil was giving Scott weird looks, but Scott held up a hand with a couple of fingers up to tell him give them a couple more minutes as he and Sara continued their silent communication with SAM.

“So you’re saying that we have nano tech in our bloodstreams,” Scott finally concluded. “When I need to see something up close, you activate the brain so it can intake and interpret what I’m seeing, but it’s the nano tech that actually allows my eyes to physically zoom in like binoculars.”

“Precisely. This is the same technology which enabled me to stop and then restart your heart. Measurable brain activity ceases between twenty and forty seconds after a human heart stops beating. Had it taken me longer to restart your heart than your brain lived, the nano tech would have been the only recourse since, if your brain is dead, so would my implant cease to be able to give your brain commands. To be safe, I was directing the nanos to stimulate and shock your heart into restarting rather than simply commanding your brain to restart it.”

“You’re seriously freaking me out here,” Sara admonished. “Ugh.”

“My apologies, Sara. It is not my intention to upset you. But I need to be certain you understand their usage, for there is a high probability we can put these nanos to use in others, especially since the Archon inadvertently provided his own body as test grounds for it.”

“Oh, my God,” Scott breathed. “I get it. The Archon injected himself with my blood, which put some of the nanos into his bloodstream. Even though he has no SAM implant, having the nanos meant he was able to access you – to _hear_ you and see what you could see – through _them_. They…what, went to his brain and shared the information they contained from you?”

“Yes. My proposal is that if they agree to it, Gil and Jaal be injected with some of yours and Sara’s blood to allow them to communicate through the nanos, which will filter to you via their continued connection to me, and vice-versa. I can activate them only for this mission and then deactivate them indefinitely, permanently, intermittently, as they and both of you wish. It will allow you to communicate without the ability to be hacked, it will allow me to monitor their vitals and it will provide me with the means to enhance or help them in minor ways should the need arise. Above all else, you will also always know where they are.

“SAM, you’re brilliant,” Scott said. “But we do need to ask Jaal and Gil if they’d agree to this. They might be kind of suspicious.”

“Understood. I await their decisions, then. It will be simple enough to accomplish, if they agree.”

Scott turned to Gil. “So…Gil…old buddy, old pal…”

Gil’s eyes narrowed. “What are you up to, Ryder?”

Scott smiled.


	12. The Storm Before The Real Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott's small team thought the worst it had to deal with was Cora, the kett and some straggler Roekaar. But then suddenly Tempest is in danger, the Initiative's Outpost isn't responding, Kadara Port is being threatened and Gil's boyfriend discovers something even worse than all of that headed straight for them.

“Why do I think I’m going to regret this?” Gil asked as he pressed on the bandage covering his left wrist. “There’s something very weird about having your blood in me, Ryder.”

“Think of it as the new-fangled method for becoming blood brothers,” Scott grinned as he bandaged his own left wrist. “Sara, have there been any issues with yours and Jaal’s blood interacting?”

“Not yet. We’ve taken drops and put them together and SAM is scanning for issues, but his analysis of our two very different types of blood is that a small drop of mine wouldn’t kill Jaal anyway, even if there was an incompatibility. All I can say is, thank God he’s not Turian.”

“No kidding. Let me talk to him over your Omni.”

“Go ahead.”

“Hey, Jaal.”

“Scott, when you said you considered me a brother, I wasn’t quite aware how far that sense of family would be embedded into me.”

Scott chuckled. “You don’t have to do it, you know.”

“What? Surely that is a joke. This is a gift beyond my wildest imaginings. To know that I can speak with Sara no matter where we are, what we are doing? How could I not wish for such a thing?”

A large grin appeared on Scott’s face. “Okay. Well, if SAM is sure this will work in your body, then let’s get it done. We still need to figure out where Reyes is.”

“Understood. Jaal out.”

Suddenly Gil’s omnitool binged an incoming ONT. Scott’s face drained of all color as Gil tapped out a response to the message. “Who are you talking to?” Scott asked. “Gil, you’re not…we’re…what are you doing?”

Looking at him in surprise, Gil replied, “It’s Davis. He’s helping me with all this, remember?”

Scott made what he hoped was his best DUH face. “I’m…sorry, yes, of course.”

“Ryder, seriously, it’s all right. I get it. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now, and I don’t ever want to know on my own behalf. But I’m not Cora, okay? I’m not going to betray you.”

Scott felt his heart drop to his toes as he thumped his butt down onto the hard ground. He raked his hands down his face, then through his hair, tugging it as he went.

_Reyes laughed. “How do you manage to always look so good when you’re forever running your hands through your hair like that?”_

_“I can’t help it. I do it when I’m at my wits’ end.”_

_“And why are you at your wits’ end right now, Pathfinder?”_

_“Because you are a very frustrating man?”_

_Reyes advanced on him like the predator he was very capable of being. Not many could pile the testosterone that high and still breathe. Scott swore Reyes simply wafted in on the stuff rather than walking, and despite his own equally high levels, the smuggler with a heart of pure gold – okay, maybe tarnished gold – never failed to make him feel like he was most definitely the one being hunted._

_“And what about me,_ dulzura _, do you find so frustrating?”_

_“The fact that I can’t have a normal conversation with you, without wanting to do_ this _!” Scott groused, diving into Reyes like he was the oasis in Scott’s parched Sahara. Their mouths crashed together, then, and the hideaway’s kitchen saw a lot more than mere cooking that day._

Scott’s face met his hands. Shortly, he felt Gil squeeze his shoulder and looked up, swiping quickly at his eyes. Gil’s face softened as he spoke. “Davis has something, but you’re _really_ not going to like it.”

Shoulders slumping, Scott was shocked to suddenly hear Jaal, of all people, talking in his mind. Clearly it jump-scared Gil, too, and just like that, all four of them were thought-babbling, as SAM sometimes called it when Scott let loose with stream of consciousness.

“This is fascinating,” Jaal remarked.

“Weird to hear someone other than SAM or Scott,” Sara observed.

“I feel like I’m about to be taken away by Lexi for a mental evaluation,” Gil stated in his mind with a shake of his head and a weird look on his face.

“Okay, guys, I know this is new and all, but Gil, you just told me that Davis has something?” Scott interjected, trying to keep them on task. Strange that it was all being done via thought, but right now he didn’t have the time or desire to play with that particularly new facet of things.

“Right. Remember how I said Davis can hack into auditories? I had him do it with the _Tempest_ ’s, which are kept apart even from SAM to allow for privacy when required.”

“Yeah, the only reason he knows anything from them is if someone’s on my auditory or Sara’s, and then he can hear it.”

“Exactly,” Gil confirmed. “So Davis found something he knew we’d want to hear. And Scott, I just want you to know that he has sworn to me this will be kept under his hat and in fact, he’s pursuing yet another lead on our behalf here, so please know that he will not become one of those who betrays you.”

Scott puffed out a breath of air. “I trust you, Gil. I’ll take your word for that.”

Gil nodded in acknowledgement. “I’m sending this through to your omni, Sara, for the visual, and playing it here on mine as well.”

“Go ahead.”

_“Cora, where the hell have you been?”_

_“Holding up my end of the deal. What about you? I hear you’ve got Ditaeon eating out of your hand.”_

_“Damn right, I do. Keema’s good for all kinds of intel if you hit her zones just right. The angaran physiology is fascinating.”_

“That’s Liam,” Jaal noted, the shock evident even in the thought-turned-words of it.

Scott sometimes hated being right.

_“Well, don’t get too involved. You know why we’re here.”_

_“Don’t worry about it. As if I’d put the female of some other species ahead of my own. Besides, this is pretty much in the bag.”_

_“You’re kidding, right? How many times did we try to kill that pathetic little boy playing at Pathfinder in ways that would look natural, only to be thwarted at every turn? And now they’ve gone and made his damn cheerleader sister an equal partner in it? Bullshit. I’m not leaving anything to chance this time.”_

Gil glanced at Scott, whose face was a mask of stone.

“Bitch,” Sara noted.

_“When do you want me to plant the device in the Port? I mean, you’ve got the Charlatan, so we’re just waiting for Ryder to take the bait now, yeah?”_

_“You got it. Any sign of_ Tempest _?”_

_“No, she’s still out circling Voeld. By the time this is finished, the other Ryder will just be setting down on that ice ball with its hidden payload. She’ll go up with the heap like an old-school H-bomb.”_

“Wait…what did they put aboard the ship?” Sara asked.

“SAM,” Scott ordered, “warn Kallo _now_ that he’s got to evacuate _Tempest_ and set her down somewhere completely uninhabited. Away from the Nol system. We don’t want to destabilize where Voeld is. Make sure he does _not_ stay with her or attempt to locate whatever Liam’s talking about.”

“Understood.”

_“Have you finished gathering all the losers for the kett?”_

_A low, familiar laugh sounded. “Oh, Liam, you do have a way with words. Yes, the kett are ready to each of these…unique humans…to further their studies and we already have their offerings to us. Site 8’s just waiting for Vidal to be transported and then the kett loader will pick up the refrig units.”_

Scott perked up. “That means he’s still here somewhere.”

_“Heard the arse gave you a bit of trouble.”_

_“He did. Somehow, that sonofabitch melted his way through the unit he was being held in. We cornered him pretty quickly, knocked him down with an MET. I had him taken to the transport center. Primus wants to have a heart-to-heart.”_

_“Literally, probably.”_

_“Given that he’s fucking the Golden Boy? I don’t doubt it.”_

Scott paled. Swallowed.

“ _Vesaan_ ,” Jaal swore.

“Jesus,” Sara breathed.

Gil knew instinctively that touch was important to Scott. Always had. It’s what had drawn them together so easily before even discovering they both preferred the male of their species to the female. Little touches here and there to set worried minds at ease did wonders for the soul. Yet as familiar as they had become with each other, never before had Gil seen Scott reach out for it first…not to him, anyway.

But this? Confirmation that the only reason Reyes was in danger was because of his relationship with Scott? It was too much for the Pathfinder and he leaned forward, forehead banging hard onto Gil’s shoulder. Gil’s gloved hand cradled the back of his head as Scott took in deep breaths and exhaled long and slow while the conversation continued.

_“Listen, I just received notification that the transport Primus is sending for Vidal will be here in forty minutes. I’m going to need you to set that Port distraction for fifty minutes, mark.”_

_“Got it. What about Akksul and his crew?”_

_“Oh, everything’s already planted for that. The fool thinks he’s using us to make it look like we’re the ones doing this to our own people, betraying the Initiative to help the kett. He’s such an idiot. Instead, when this all blows over and the Ryders are no longer a problem, it’s going to look like the angara engineered the entire thing to get rid of the Milky Way settlers once and for all. They’ll be the scapegoats for both deaths and with me as Pathfinder, it’ll be as easy as one-two-three for me to pin this on them and end the ridiculous alliance the brat formed.”_

_“Finally. After all this time having to pretend, we’re going to be in charge of Heleus like we should have been all along.”_

_“Bingo. See you on the flip side, Li.”_

_“You got it, Cora. Oh, excuse me…_ Pathfinder Harper _. Liam out.”_

Scott lifted his head from Gil’s shoulder, giving him a small smile of thanks. Sara and Jaal stared incredulously at each other.

“Scott,” SAM said, “I have confirmed that the _Tempest_ engineering section has been completely rigged and rewired during Gil’s absence by Gynni. She has escaped aboard one of the pods that have been jettisoned, _en route_ to Voeld with the others.”

“SAM, put through an emergency communique to Anjik Do Xeel and Drack. Warn them about Gynni. I want her arrested and held for interrogation and so help me God if she resists, I authorize shoot-to-kill,” Scott seethed.

“Understood,” SAM replied. “Kallo and Suvi are headed for the Nalesh system and are going to set the _Tempest_ down on Suiorna, the fourth and last planet. I anticipate there will be damage surrounding the ship but it should not destabilize the planet.”

“How are they going to get away?” Sara asked.

“Ground-landing escape pod is being prepped as we speak,” SAM replied. “There is also news from Kadara Port. A bomb threat has forced an evacuation. The threat apparently extends to the slums as well.”

“Where’s Keema?” Scott asked.

“Last known location was Ditaeon, but I am unable to reach anyone at the outpost.”

“Wait, Christmas isn’t answering?”

“I’m afraid not, Scott. It’s impossible for me to determine precisely the situation anywhere on Kadara given that I am unable to monitor Ditaeon’s messages or status unless Mayor Tate authorizes access, nor can I obtain access to Kadera Port with Keema Dorghun or....”

“Reyes,” Scott breathed. “Right. Shit. Okay…okay…this transport center Cora mentioned, where he’s supposed to be picked up by a kett transport. Can your scans find anything nearby Site 8?”

“One moment.” Seemingly endless moments passed. “Scanning. I have located a surface structure that is comprised of eight prefabricated modules that exist in a two-story build. There is one landing platform attached to it and an adjacent cave entrance.”

“Can you tell if that cave connects to the ones we can see here at the Site 8 trench?” Scott asked.

“I’m afraid not. Unfortunately, my scanners can only go so deep without my _Tempest_ node or—”

Scott, Sara, Jaal and Gil all started at the abrupt loss of SAM’s voice. All at once, they also lost the ability to hear each other.

“SAM?” Scott said internally, then out loud repeated, “SAM?”

“What’s happened?” Gil asked, then his face turned a few shades whiter. “Oh, my God. Do you think…did the _Tempest_ go up?”

“I don’t know. He’s only got an auxiliary node there. It’s not his primary.”

“Right, I know, but…”

“My apologies, Scott. I have rejoined you.”

“SAM? What happened?”

“I am afraid the _Tempest_ has been destroyed,” SAM reported in his typically dispassionate voice. “It required a reset of certain circuitry.”

“Oh, my baby,” Gil breathed, bowing his head.

Scott squeezed Gil’s forearm and held it fast. “Kallo? Suvi?”

“Without my auxiliary node on the _Tempest_ being active, I no longer can determine their status, Scott, although I do know their escape pod launched less than one minute prior to losing contact. I am sorry. It’s likely they will not attempt the use of their auditories, as I explained to them the situation as quickly as I could while they were traveling to Suiorna.”

“What do we do?” Sara asked. “We can’t save everyone everywhere all at the same time.”

“No,” Scott said dejectedly. “We can’t.” He swallowed hard. “But we’re not alone in this, and although we’ve been betrayed by two of my original crew, I know there are people I can trust unconditionally who will do whatever it takes to stop Cora and Liam from succeeding.”

“Starting with the ones we have right here,” Sara confirmed.

“And if I may,” Jaal interjected, trying to keep his thoughts to the Common language rather than his native Shelesh, “I would very much like to be the one that takes care of Akksul, once and for all.”

“Understood,” Scott acknowledged with a curt nod he knew Jaal couldn’t see. “To that end, I think you’ll want to join Gil and me at the transport center. I’ll bet that Cora’s going to oversee the handoff of Reyes to Primus’s people personally, and my money says Akksul will be there with her.”

“Got it,” Jaal agreed. “We’ll bring the hover car around to pick you up.”

“What about Kadara Port?” Gil asked.

“That’s where your Davis is going to help,” Scott replied.

“He is?”

“Gil, I need you here with me, full tilt. To that end, since Davis is already in on this, I need him to be my eyes, ears and coordination.”

“But he’s on the Nexus. He’s nowhere near here.”

“No, but didn’t you say he’s got certain ways of knowing things, getting things?”

“Yeeees,” Gil agreed slowly.

“I have a feeling if you ask really nicely,” Scott said with a small smile, “Davis will be able to tap into the receiver I set up for him here that probably is much, much more than a receiver, and find out what’s happening at the Port and maybe even at Ditaeon.”

“You’re brilliant,” Gil grinned, face lighting up like an engineering panel.

“Careful, it’ll go to his head,” Sara said as she maneuvered the hover car to their location. “Hop in.”

They quickly slotted into their seats in the vehicle. SAM pointed out for Sara the general direction of the structure he was presuming to be the transport center mentioned by Cora, while SAM also helped Gil set up a secure channel to Davis. It turned out Scott was right about the man’s receivers being way more than that, and soon Qar was filtering all kinds of information to them as he was homing in on various parts of Kadara.

It was when he pointed his satellite to Ditaeon, however, that he realized something was very, very wrong. “The signals I’m getting from the outpost aren’t Initiative,” he said to Gil, who had put his boyfriend on his omnitool’s speakers so all could hear.

“What do you mean they’re not Initiative?” Gil asked. “What are they, then?”

“Kett?” Scott asked.

“Ah, hello, Pathfinder.”

“Hey, Davis. What’s going on at the outpost?”

“Hang on, it’s being scrambled and redirected. I don’t suppose that fancy AI of yours can help me untangle this?”

“Why does everyone call him fancy?” Jaal asked, remembering Scott sharing that Reyes had once called SAM the same.

“Because he’s awesome,” Sara replied.

“I am happy to be of assistance, Mr. Qar,” SAM stated.

“Oo, sexy voice,” he replied somewhat absentmindedly.

“Hey,” Gil protested.

“Not sexy like yours,” Davis backpedaled quickly.

Sara snort-laughed and Scott shook his head with a grin.

“I see the problem. One moment,” SAM stated, apparently oblivious to the implications and amusements of his human companions. “Sara, you will want to cease your approach now. Perhaps the copse of giant toadstools five hundred yards southwest will provide sufficient cover.”

“On it,” Sara responded, steering as advised.

“Mr. Qar, I have isolated the signal that is scrambling your receiver’s frequency synthesizer.”

“I knew you could do it, SAM. What’s the signal for, can you tell?”

“It appears to be blocking all communication to and from Ditaeon and working its way across the planet. It will reach Kadara Port in twenty-point-six seconds and will begin scrambling incoming and outgoing communications to our current location within fifteen-point-six minutes, present speed.”

“We’re going to lose our connection,” Gil said to Davis. “Is there anything you can do since it’s feeding through your satellite receiver?”

“Obviously I could set the auto-destruct, but before I do, I think I may be able to counter and reverse that signal,” Davis replied. “However, it’ll take me longer than what SAM says we have, maybe twenty minutes or so.”

“I am confused,” Jaal offered. “Did Cora not state that the kett transport would be landing at the transport center in forty minutes?”

“Yes,” Sara confirmed.

“That was some ten minutes ago, which means that communications will be scrambled fifteen minutes before the transport meant for Mr. Vidal even arrives.”

“How will they be staying in contact if their ability to communicate with Cora are being scrambled?” Gil asked.

“Oh, my God,” Scott breathed. “Cora’s not intending for this to work the way she’s led Liam to believe.”

“You mean the betrayer is betraying even her own cohort?” Sara asked. “Damn, that’s low, even for a baddie.”

“Then what’s her game?” Gil asked.

“Oh, shit,” Davis breathed over their still-open channel.

“What?” Gil practically squeaked.

“Does anyone have any idea what this is?”

A grainy picture showed up on Gil’s omnitool. With the hover car now parked, Sara turned to see what Gil was showing them. Jaal peered at it as well, but his mind was blank as to what he was seeing.

Scott, however, knew exactly what they were looking at, and the fact that his face turned as white as the whites of his standard issue Andromeda Initiative clothing told everyone who was with him that this was worse than bad.

“It’s about a day’s flight from me on the Nexus…but…very close to Kadara,” Davis advised.

Gil stared at the weird form. “It looks like some kind of squid or something, but _massive_ ,” he observed. “It’s a ship? For real?”

“Definitely metallic,” Jaal nodded thoughtfully. “There is light from this system’s star glinting from its hull.”

“Hull?” Sara questioned. “Then it _is_ some kind of ship? But it looks like a…well, like Gil said…a squid!”

“It’s not a squid,” Scott stated, feeling like his heart had just completely stopped in his chest as a flash of recognition pinged somewhere deep in the recesses of his brain. “SAM, please tell me that’s not what I think it is. What the Benefactor was so afraid of that led to them moving the Initiative’s timeline up. _Please_ tell me it’s not that.”

“I’m afraid that all of my lines of calculations come to the same conclusion, Scott. That’s exactly what it is,” SAM replied.

“And how do I know what it is when I’ve never seen one before?”

“It’s another hidden memory,” SAM revealed. “I am just now accessing it for the first time as well.”

“What is going on?” Sara asked, becoming annoyed from being out of the current loop. “What is that damn thing that’s scrambling all of Qar’s signals?”

Scott shook his head and closed his eyes as his father’s newest memories flooded his mind. “That,” he whispered, “is a Reaper.”


	13. Plan of Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reapers. In Andromeda. Thanks to Dr. Liara T'Soni's messages to Alec Ryder, our heroes gain enough information to understand that the entirety of organic life in the Heleus Cluster is in grave danger and that Cora's as crazy as her father was. Also, Gil's new boyfriend Davis Qar begins proving his BAMFworthiness.

“We need Shepard, someone from his crew, _some_ information!” Scott barked, having hopped out of the hover car so fast he’d nearly tipped it.

“You’re something like six hundred years late for that shit,” Sara remarked.

“That Asari, SAM, what was her name…Liara…T’Soni, right, T’Soni. She and Dad were in contact. She sent him information!”

“Accessing,” SAM droned as Scott’s three companions exited the car to join him.

“Scott, we’re not in on this, we don’t know what you know, so help us understand,” Sara said softly, approaching her brother and wrapping her arms around him. Both Jaal and Gil watched Scott deflate, lean into her and finally wrap his arms around her. Twin comfort, they rightfully surmised, as the brother and sister held one another until SAM spoke again.

“The information provided by Dr. T’Soni to your father via the communique she sent after he had already been placed into cryogenic sleep is thorough. In it, she speaks of Commander John Shepard and how he, Earth’s Alliance military and both fleets and soldiers from most other species in the Milky Way banded together to stop the Reapers from taking all evolved organic life in the Milky Way.”

“Wait…” Sara’s face was near crumpling. “Are you telling us that after we left the Milky Way it was invaded by a whole bunch of these…Reaper things? And that they wanted to kill organics?”

“Does this mean the Reapers _aren’t_ organic?” Jaal asked.

“That is correct, Sara,” SAM confirmed. “And while millions across all species did indeed lose their lives, the Reapers were eventually destroyed by Commander Shepard’s own hand, though Dr. T’Soni does not specify how this occurred. She indicates that he survived his encounter with the Reapers and their destruction but deigned not to provide the specifics of his solution or his whereabouts at the time, to Alec. Of note: all artificial intelligence in the Milky Way was destroyed at the same time as the Reapers, who were also not organic as Jaal correctly surmised, including the AI that was Shepard’s own ship and an entire race of machines called the geth.”

“So if we had stayed in the Milky Way,” Gil concluded, “we would have been part of that fight some years after we left.”

“And SAM would’ve been dead,” Sara added. “I’m glad you’re not dead, SAM.”

“I share the sentiment, Sara, thank you.”

“But how are the Reapers here _now_ if Shepard destroyed them?” Scott asked, pacing and running his fingers through his hair again. “Where do they come from?”

“According to Dr. T’Soni’s information, Reapers exist in a near-stasis form in dark space until such time as one left behind to monitor civilizations deems enough organics have risen to sufficient levels that it is time to destroy them. She indicates that this was what happened to the Protheans some fifty thousand years prior to our leaving the Milky Way, and that it is a repetitive cycle which never ends.”

“And there’s all my research busted flat in less than 30 seconds,” Sara groused.

Scott shook his head. “So…the Milky Way survived because Shepard destroyed all the Reapers, but apparently one got away from him and…what, followed us to Andromeda?”

“You know, we still don’t have any idea where the Quarian ark is,” Sara offered. “You said some of Dad’s notes indicated it was delayed leaving the Milky Way. Could that delay have afforded one of the Reapers time to follow it?”

“If the Reapers are truly inorganic,” SAM offered, “and require no assistance from organics in any way to travel, then they would have no need for cryogenics and indeed, assuming their lifespans to be sufficient, could easily have followed any of the arks to Andromeda. We did, after all, have to cross dark space and there’s no telling what _part_ of dark space they were inhabiting.”

“Jesus,” Scott breathed, running a hand down his face. “We may have sailed right past them without being any the wiser.”

“Hey, guys!” Davis yelled from Gil’s omnitool, startling all, as they’d completely forgotten he was on a live, open line with them.

“What’s going on?” Gil asked, a frown creasing his brow over the frantic sound in Davis’ voice.

“That signal that this…Reaper…is putting out…it’s getting stronger. I…If you guys are going to rescue that Vidal guy, then you’d better do it damn fast because…well, at the rate that the signal is increasing and…going back…looking at past strengths…” Davis mumbled, and they could hear his sharp staccato breaths as he worked and huffed out numbers, equations and trajectories before finally letting out a small gasp. “That ship will arrive at Kadara in forty-five minutes.”

“My God, you were right,” Sara breathed, eyes locked with her twin’s. “Cora’s not planning a trade, or on simply handing you or Reyes off to Primus, is she?”

“It does not sound that way,” Jaal confirmed.

“Then what’s she aiming for here?” Gil asked. “Complete annihilation of all organics would include her!”

“I believe I have found a potential answer to that question,” SAM offered. “Dr. T’Soni indicated that the head of Cerberus, referred to as the Illusive Man, had begun working _with_ the Reapers toward the end, before they were destroyed by Commander Shepard.”

Scott frowned. “ _With_ them? Cora’s father was working _with_ them? Why would a species that methodically destroys all evolved organic life every fifty thousand years, work with a single human?”

“And why the hell would a human even want that?” Sara added.

“The data indicates that the Illusive Man believed he could control the Reapers and that once he gained that capability, humans would become the dominant species and rule over all others, as the Protheans had fifty thousand years earlier.”

“Do you think Cora has the same delusions of grandeur?” Gil asked. “Is she working with them as well, to wipe out the competition?”

“If true, this would include both the kett and the angara,” Jaal concluded, anger distorting his normally placid features. “As if it were not bad enough that the kett exalt us.”

“Okay,” Scott breathed, turning in three circles, tugging at his hair, then finally coming to a calm rest as Boyfriend Scott retreated and Pathfinder Ryder emerged. “Assuming we have reached the correct conclusions, here, our primary objective must be to stop Cora and, by extension, Akksul.”

“Jaal and I can handle those two,” Sara said, voice laced with what their family had always referred to as Ryderbitch. When Sara or Ellen had gotten that tone, the menfolk of the family knew anyone in their way would soon find themselves in big trouble. She cracked her knuckles and Jaal’s face took on a similar look of determination.

“That means we can grab Reyes,” Gil said to Scott, “like we originally planned.”

“But then what?” Scott asked. “If that Reaper’s headed here to destroy organics, then putting Cora out of commission, even _killing_ her, won’t stop it, will it?”

“Not unless she’s in direct control of it,” SAM responded. “The information I am privy to leads me to believe that this is most likely not the case, as the Illusive Man was never successful in his endeavor. He was instead killed by Shepard and a Captain Anderson prior to Shepard destroying the Reapers themselves.”

“So…we rescue Reyes, Sara and Jaal get rid of Cora and Akksul…and then we all get killed anyway by that squid ship?” Scott shook his head as his mind churned. “I have been through too much to get this far, I am _not_ going out like this!”

“If I may?” came Mr. HNS through Gil’s omnitool.

“Go ahead, Davis,” Scott acknowledged, willing himself to cool it.

“I think I can turn that thing’s signal back on it.”

“What? How?” Gil asked.

“Remember on our second date,” Davis began, and once again they could hear his whispered mutterings in between his conversational words, “we discussed how H-MEFs, high mass effect fields, had to be accounted for during transmissions, and that was why long-range video calls couldn’t render more than a greenscreen outline of the caller, which you called creepy and disturbing and asked me never to do again while you were aboard _Tempest_?”

Gil snorted and blushed while his companions offered various reactions from grins to actual curiosity. “Yeah, I remember that conversation,” he replied as the tips of his ears turned pink. “You said the trick to straightening the signal out enough to be received at all lay in a ship that uses high mass effect fields to protect the ship itself, being able to reflect the signal off its hull and back into the H-MEF fast enough that eventually it will beeline for the receiver out of sheer probability.”

“Exactly, like the odds at poker.”

“I followed that. I think,” Scott stated. “But what does that have to do with the Reaper signal?”

“I’m reading a massive H-MEF protecting it stem to stern,” Davis replied rather excitedly, “even larger than the one protecting your _Tempest_. Although I guess I should say nose to tail given what the damn thing resembles. Anyway, for the signal to reach everywhere on Kadara, it’s putting out a massive amount of energy to envelop the planet rather than pinpointing just one specific receiver.”

“So you can do something with that energy?” Jaal asked. “Such as rigging a kett _dhan_ shotgun to overload and arc its projectiles back into its own magazine to turn it into a bomb?”

Sara groaned, “Is that how you got rid of that kett transport on Eos that day?”

Jaal grinned at her. She rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know from weapons,” Davis stated, “but I think I’ve figured out how to use my receiver to reflect that Reaper signal back onto the Reaper itself.”

“Which will do what?” Scott asked.

“It will have to bounce around in the H-MEF surrounding the ship to get _back_ to the ship, just like it’s having to bounce around to get _away_ from the ship to Kadara.”

“I get it,” Gil breathed, snapping his fingers. “At some point the incoming and outgoing signals will bounce against each other and when they meet, _kaboom_!”

“Well, that’s the theory anyway.”

“I don’t understand. How can two of the same signals make a kaboom?” Sara asked.

“With a line of dirty code thrown in,” Davis replied, “for good _measure_.”

“Hey, Gil,” Scott said, elbowing his best friend.

“Yeah?”

“He’s a keeper.”

Gil barked out a laugh as Davis quipped, “Damn right, I am. Okay, now listen. This is going to take me…I don’t know…maybe another twenty minutes at the very least.”

“Okay,” Scott nodded. “That means we have twenty minutes to get Reyes away from that _bitch_.”

“And for this joint venture to take that bitch _down_ ,” Sara confirmed, thumbing at the admittedly tiny amount of space currently between herself and Jaal.

“SAM, I want us on constant monitoring, but Gil’s going to have to disconnect from Davis to keep our cover. So establish a secure line with him and feed us updates.”

“Understood.”

“Sorry, Dave, gotta say so long,” Gil frowned.

“Hey,” Davis said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Be careful. I like you in one piece.”

“I like me in one piece, too,” Gil replied with a half-smile, eyes gone somewhat dreamy. Then he snapped to and said, “Don’t worry. The Ryders always win and this will be no different. Gil out.”

“We do, huh?” Sara asked.

“If you two beat the archon,” Jaal stated fondly, “you two can beat a single Reaper.”

“Only thanks to Davis and his scary signals,” Scott stated. “Now let’s beeline it to that transport center and get my man the hell out of there.”


	14. We're Going In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott, Sara, Jaal and Gil versus kett, angara and their own former shipmates. Let's do this.

It had always been interesting having SAM in his head, and the various team members coming through his auditory implant whenever they were on missions together, but what was happening with Gil and Jaal right now took things to a whole different level of intimacy that Scott had never before experienced. No longer were these actual voices coming through as vibrations that his ear interpreted as real sound. Now, Gil was inside his mind with him the way he’d gotten used to SAM being, as was Jaal. It was as if he could hear their thoughts as impressions rather than words, yet his mind translated them into perfect words and sentences as though they were speaking normally.

Weird. But cool.

“Quick check,” Scott thought. “Can everyone hear each other?”

“The word ‘hear’ is not quite how I would put it,” came Jaal’s thought, “but yes.”

“This is freaky, Ryders, just sayin’,” was Gil’s thought comment.

“Loud and clear all the way round,” Sara confirmed in kind. “You seeing what I’m seeing, bro?”

“Am. Zooming in further.”

Gil pulled out the tiny ‘nocs he always carried on his belt. “Two stories, like SAM described. I’ve got at least eight guards ground level this side alone. Jaal, how many your side?”

“Last count: twelve. But they seem to be rotating more in.”

“Probably preparing for the shitstorm Cora’s about to unleash,” Scott groused. “But the second floor has flaps of some sort, maybe air vents or tropical-style windows? I can see in there, some counters, lab equipment. That what you were referencing, Sara?”

“Yes. But also, there’s a body on a table in there. It’s curled up in a fetal position. Nude. All I can see is the back of it, so I can’t even tell if it’s male or female.”

“Hang on, moving a bit east to see if I can get a better vantage point.”

SAM broke into their thought-stream with, “Mr. Qar reports his efforts are twenty-eight percent completed. He ran into difficulty returning the signal on the same frequency. I suggested a two-hundredths variant. He is adjusting now.”

“Thanks, SAM,” Gil replied. “Scott, I’ve got eyes on Liam. He’s entering the west side.”

“I see him,” Sara interjected. “He’s fully loaded. He even has a sniper rifle on him.”

“Asshole,” Scott thought and then scuffled himself into place behind two nicely positioned rocks that jutted from the ground. He looked directly at the air vent and could tell already that he’d be able to see exactly who was lying on the tab— “Oh…” he breathed out loud.

“Ouch, yow, Scott, tone down the stream!” Sara thought to the group.

“Is that what that is?” Gil asked. “What’s going on?”

“Reyes is the one on the table, second floor, center module, slightly west of center,” Scott reported, working hard to tamp down his fear and the stream of consciousness that had mentally deafened his thought-companions. Because when his SAM-enhanced eyes zoomed in as close to Reyes as they could without going too blurry to see detail, the one thing he _didn’t_ see was any sign of life.

“No,” Scott breathed out loud. “Come on, Rey. Give me something here.” But no matter how much he scanned Reyes’ head or torso, given that they were balled up with the rest of him in the fetal position, he could not for the life of him see any indication of breathing or other movement. “Please…SAM, we…I have to…can you..?”

“Scott, I am unable to determine whether Mr. Vidal has positive vital signs from this distance, as I would have to utilize the implant in your brain to do so and you’re simply too far away.”

“Wait…wait, no, that’s it. That’s it!” Scott crowed inside his mind. “Gil, do you still have that modified hypo-spray Lexi gave you to alter your glucose levels?”

“Yeah, of course, I never leave the ship without it.”

“Wait, you have a glucose problem?” Sara asked.

“It’s minor, and manageable. Lexi’s a mother hen. Makes me carry this damn pack every time I go off-ship.”

Gil peeked out from his hiding place six feet to Scott’s left. Scott quickly motioned him over. “SAM, if I can modify the hypo…add some of my blood to the micro-syringe at the tip…and fire it from distance, would it penetrate Rey’s skin and get your nanos into him?”

“There is an eighty-three-point-three-four percent chance of success, Scott, but only if you utilize a laser weapon modified to machine. It will require the propulsion of its laser half.”

“The only one I brought with me is the pistol.”

“How far can it fire?” Gil asked out loud since they were now crouched next to one another, balling themselves so tightly behind the two small rocks that Scott knew he’d be feeling the strain in his knees for days.

Scott pulled his pistol from his thigh holster. “Twenty feet before the bullets start dancing. It’s the Rozerad Jaal helped me modify to fire mass effect laser shots,” he advised via thought. “But I can flip it back to machine shots as long as I only fire two in a row with a point-five second cooldown in between.”

“You are such a nerd,” Sara remarked.

“Scott,” Jaal interjected, “there should still be a full clip of eight physical bullets in that magazine. I left them there in case our mod misfired so you would not be caught defenseless in the field.”

“Thank you, my friend,” Scott replied as he ejected the clip. “You may have just saved Reyes’ life.” He swallowed hard at the implications of that as he thumbed a half-inch bullet out of it and before he knew it, Gil had grabbed the tiny killer and was using the plethora of tools he somehow managed to store everywhere on his person to remove the part that would put a hole into the body it was shot at. “Gil, I’m seriously taking you with me wherever I go from now on.”

The engineer snorted as he handed Scott a coaster-sized hypo-pack. “Consider me in your back pocket, Ryder,” he said aloud as Scott took it from him. “The hypos are individually wrapped, mini needle point caps that I usually put onto the jet injector. Normally when I cock the injector it pulls my dose of insulin in automatically. But since you’re not going to do that, I’m modifying the bullet casing…here, give me one of the needle caps…thanks…”

Scott watched Gil work for a bit and then, when he gestured at Scott’s wrist, he took off his left glove, allowed Gil to use one side of a tiny set of precision wire cutters to put a hole over his median vein where he’d just allowed blood to be drawn for Gil to get the nanos, and watched as the engineer pressed along both sides of the hole until a dome of blood had risen from it.

“Right, I’m going to fold the needle cap into the casing,” Gil stated as he did precisely that. “Now I’m going to immerse the needle and its base holder into the blood, and then cap the bullet. Here.” He handed Scott the completed bullet, which Scott then put back into the clip as Bullet #1 while Gil’s nimble fingers darted round his wrist to bandage it.

“All right,” Scott thought to everyone through SAM, “Gil’s rigged me a delivery mechanism, but I have to be half again as close to Reyes as I am right now so Jaal, Sara? I need a diversion but do _not_ risk yourselves.”

“Understood,” Sara thought back.

“Gil,” Scott said out loud. “You see those two six-wheelers up about thirty feet?” Gil nodded. “I can use them to hide behind until the coast is pretty clear, but I’m going to have to stand on _top_ of the one on the left in order to get the height I need to hit him. Be my eyes.”

“Like no other,” Gil breathed. “Let’s hope that diversion of theirs nabs you enough time.”

“Okay, we’ve got a few hover cars rigged to explode,” Sara thought to them some few minutes later.

“I need to move into position. I’ll let you know when to blow it.”

“Understood. Be careful, bro.”

“You know me.”

“That’s her point,” Jaal retorted.

“SAM,” Gil thought as Scott moved low and smooth toward the six-wheeled transport that would eventually become his shooting platform, “where’s Davis with the signal?”

“One moment.” Barely two seconds passed. “Mr. Qar reports he is seventy-three percent finished with the work required to double the signal back upon itself. He estimates seventeen minutes before the feedback loop will begin.”

Scott held his breath as he’d learned to do whenever precision movement was required. Crouched behind the back tire on the left side of what looked like an old Hardline model transport, he thought, “Status,” as he exhaled slowly and calmly.

“You’re clear,” Gil said. “The guards didn’t see you get into position.”

“We’re ready when you give the word,” Sara reported.

“All right, hang on.” Scott looked around the left side of the vehicle. Two guards were looking vaguely in his direction. “Okay, Sara, Jaal: now!”

A loud whirring, whining sound filtered through the air followed by an explosion.

“They’re on the move to the far side,” Gil advised. “Go, Scott!”

Scott rounded the huge tire, stepped on the middle of the wheel and then hoisted himself up onto the rubber. A second explosion threw detritus into the air that whistled due east until it collided with the eastern first floor module of the structure. Scott vaulted from the tire up to the fender and double-vaulted one more level until he landed in a crouch atop the rear of the Hardline, just behind its entry hatch.

“All still clear, they’re on the other side!” Gil reported.

A third explosion actually seemed to make the transport center itself shake and a piece of debris vaulted up and over the building, landing two feet in front of Scott’s perch. He rose to full height, took careful aim at Reyes’ exposed thigh with the pistol and fired through the open jalousie window. His eyes zoomed to where he’d seen Rey’s leg bounce from the direct hit and before too long a speck of blood oozed from the hole he’d made.

“Got a visual confirmation of the hit,” Scott reported. “Jaal, Sara, status.”

“There’s a shuttle coming in that’s diverted their attention, but we still have about six guards to get through before we can leave cover,” Sara reported.

“The rest of them are headed for the landing platform,” Jaal advised. “This may be the kett transport that is meant to ferry Reyes to Primus.”

“Over my dead body,” Scott muttered out loud, then gestured with a big, wide repeated motion of his left arm for Gil to come join him.

“Are we going in?” Gil thought as he scurried along the ground to join Scott, who jumped down from the six-wheeler and was now crouching behind its front left tire.

“Jaal and Sara are pinned down and the transport’s arriving. SAM, any readings from Reyes?”

“Not yet, Scott. Continuing to scan for new signals.”

“Reyes!” Scott thought, trying his best to figure out how to yell through a mental connection. “Reyes, can you hear me?”

“We know you can talk to him even if he’s unconscious,” Sara thought to them. “After all, you did it with me.”

“Exactly,” Scott replied in thought. “Rey! It’s me! Come on, _cariño_ , wake up!”

“No response,” SAM advised.

“ _¡Maldita sea Reyes, te quiero, ahora contéstame!”_

“What in the world was that?” Jaal asked.

“Spanish,” Sara advised. “He’s showing off. He can speak five languages.”

“Six,” Scott corrected.

“Wait, what?”

“Scott, I’ve got Mr. Vidal’s vital signs,” SAM reported.

“It worked!” Scott crowed mentally. He and Gil shared relieved grins.

“I’m afraid he’s been paralyzed with…I don’t understand. This doesn’t make sense.”

“What?” Scott asked as he pointed toward the only viable entrance for them now, furthest side of the structure away from the landing pad. Gil nodded and the men sprinted for the western entry. “SAM, what?”

“Mr. Vidal was given an MET.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing Cora say that. What was all that about the trouble he gave her?”

“MET is a generic acronym used for Mass Effect Tranquilizer.”

Gil frowned over SAM’s explanation. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s used to neutralize an unchecked – also known as unfettered – biotic.”

Scott frowned as he and Gil pounded up the five steps from ground level to the door they were intending to go through.

“SAM, I don’t understand,” Scott thought. “Why would Cora give Reyes an MET? He’s not a biotic.”

“One moment, Scott. Scanning. I’m reading…Scott, Mr. Vidal is indeed a biotic. He’s a completely _unfettered_ biotic.”

“I didn’t know there were such things,” Sara thought to them.

“What does that mean?” Jaal asked.

“It means,” SAM replied as Scott let Gil work his magic to break the door code with his omnitool, “that it was Mr. Vidal who melted his way through the container he was being held in, and the only way he could be stopped was by injecting him with the only substance known to completely block mass effect capabilities. It also has the side effect of paralyzing him completely. All but the most basic motor functions become impossible and after fifty-eight minutes in his body it will begin to affect those as well.”

“How long has the MET been in him?” Jaal asked.

“I don’t know for certain, but his respiration is slow enough to cause concern,” SAM reported. “Scott,” he continued in an uncharacteristically hesitating manner, “you don’t have much time.”

Scott’s face drained of all color as Gil finally got the doors to open. They hissed as they gave way, and the men entered the western ground floor compartment shooting.


	15. Make Waves in the Blue Blue Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyes gets the piss scared out of him twice by SAM, once because it's the first time he hears him in his head, and the second time because he learns he's the only one who can help Scott, but he's too far away to do so. Until he's not. Note: BAMF Reyes ahead.
> 
> WARNING: TWO CHARACTER DEATHS of rather major characters occur in this chapter.
> 
> WARNING: There is one particular gross scene, so yucky even Gil vomits. It may or may not fit in with canon-appropriate violence depending on your perspective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: TWO CHARACTER DEATHS of rather major characters occur in this chapter.
> 
> WARNING: There is one particular gross scene, so yucky even Gil vomits. It may or may not fit in with canon-appropriate violence depending on your perspective.

Reyes felt like he was drowning. Or trying to experience life through a really long tunnel filled with water, cotton candy and maybe even something sticky, like glue. Mmm, cotton candy. Now there was something he missed from the Milky Way. He’d always favored blue.

Maybe it wasn’t a tunnel. Maybe he’d gone swimming and had himself the wrong way round underwater. Perhaps the undertow caught him like it had that time he’d gone cliff-diving for SCAMP training and lost his bearings when he hadn’t penetrated the surface quite right and concussed himself. Ah, those were the days of being young, brash and reckless. Now, he was just brash and reckless with the young part petering away hour by hour.

What was that? What a strange sensation. Was it a thought? But not his thought, no. He wouldn’t call himself Mr. Vidal. Of course not. Nobody called him that. Oh, wait. Yes. Someone did call him that. Well, not a some _one_ , perhaps, specifically, more like a some _thing_? Which, of course, all depended on how much you saw artificial intelligence as alive, he supposed, but with SAM, oh, yes, he’d thought of him as alive the very first time he’d had a philosophical discussion with him at his and Scott’s hideaway and…oh, the hideaway. Oh, how he wanted to go back there.

Those had been, bar none, the happiest weeks of his entire life. He would laugh if he could, in the moment, recalling that there was always music playing. How randomly while Scott was standing looking out a window or fixing dinner in the kitchen a song would come on and his hips would just start swaying to it. Often Rey would slide up behind him, palms on those hips, moving with him body-to-body, flesh-to-flesh in the age-old dance of oneness that souls longed for but so rarely found.

Reyes was just as guilty of moving without warning, with his born-and-bred incapability to _not_ shake his hips when a good beat washed over him. Sometimes they’d reach for each other and slow dance or rumba. Sometimes they’d start busting a move, often seeming as though they were in a choreographed dance they’d practiced hundreds of times when in reality they were simply so in tune with the music and each other that they rode the tide of synchronicity wherever it took their bodies and minds.

They’d done everything and nothing together during that month, always of a mind, always in accord. The tendrils of their new and yet somehow ancient relationship wove around and through their very marrow like the invasive ivy his mother could never quite rid from brick walls, now holding them so close together that even apart they were always as one.

Oh, how he wanted to return. Could he return there now? Yes, please. Feel the slide of Scott’s tongue along his jugular. Place his palm over his lover’s bare chest to feel his heart pound as their bodies united sweat-slicked and heated while Luis Miguel’s sultry voice blanketed the entire structure, urging them on from the very depths of their souls.

“Mr. Vidal, you may not return to the hideaway until you respond.”

Reyes thought he may have jumped if only he could get himself to move. He wondered if he’d wetted himself but thought how silly, he didn’t get scared. Except he was, kind of. Because what the actual fuck?

“Mr. Vidal, please respond. This is SAM. You’re in terrible danger. Please respond.”

“SAM?” he thought. “What…where are you? Where am _I_?”

“Listen to me very carefully. Scott and Gil are fighting their way to you, but you need to help them. You need to _move_.”

“Move. I can’t move. I’m…they…” Suddenly Reyes remembered what was going on. “They ambushed me. There was…a bomb or something on the bottom of Bloodmaw. It…flipped me.”

“Yes, and right now you are in a transport center near Site 8 on Kadara. A kett transport is going to take you to Primus if you don’t move _now_.”

“Oh, shit,” Reyes thought, desperately willing his limbs to move. “SAM, how…I don’t know how I’m hearing you, but…is there anything you can do? I cannot get my body to respond. I feel so weak. I’m…it’s like I’ve been paralyzed.”

Without warning outside stimuli began to invade his consciousness and he heard the unmistakable sounds of gunfire. An explosion from somewhere, somewhat muffled. More gunfire. Shouting. Lots of shouting.

“SAM, what’s…I can’t _move_!”

“One moment. I will attempt to stimulate your nerves. This may hurt.”

 _May_? Famous last words.

Reyes suddenly felt as though his entire body from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes was on fire and not in the way he was used to from his own bluefire. It tore a great cry of agony from a chest far too deflated to handle the expulsion and Reyes found himself unable to breathe, as though he’d gotten the wind knocked out of him from a fall.

A string of his best cuss words in three different languages tore through his mind and without warning he knew, he just _knew_ that the other voices he was hearing in his mind were friendlies…people there to help him. Only he couldn’t form their jumbled buzzing into words nor even tell who they were since thought voices didn’t really have voices to discern one from another.

“Mr. Vidal, you must get yourself off that table. Scott needs your help _now_.”

“You have seen me naked and you have made love to me repeatedly through your fusion with Scott,” Reyes thought by way of distracting himself from the seeming impossibility of his task, panting through the pain as each nerve ending roared to life with the feel of a thousand tiny cuts. “I think…we should be on a first-name basis, ¿ _verdad_?”

“As you wish. Reyes, move your legs.”

“Bossy,” the Charlatan groused.

Reyes concentrated as hard as he could, pulling from every single torturous hour of control training he’d done both on his own and through intensive SCAMP camp. At last, he felt the stabbing, white-hot burning skewers of way too much feeling roll through his body again as he rose fully to consciousness and opened his eyes while his legs and arms and back worked to straighten themselves out of the ball of limbs he’d convulsed down to.

The room wasn’t too bright, but it still took long seconds for his eyes to adjust as he rapid-blinked them open. There was a loud bang from close by and without much ceremony or grace, Reyes rolled himself off the table just as a laser shot ripped through the door that his head had been nearest to half a second before. He landed in a one-kneed crouch, fingertips bracing his body for balance on the floor, chest heaving from the exertion as he recognized the red shock of hair that belonged to Gil. The engineer tore through the room from one end to the other, made it to the door that was on the opposite side of the room and quickly hacked it open.

Reyes didn’t have his voice, but suddenly he heard SAM inside his head. “Gil, he’s there between the table and the wall, to your right.”

Gil’s eyes snapped down and widened. He lunged for Reyes, grabbed him by his arm and hauled him up, but Rey still didn’t have all his muscles and nerves working right. He stumbled and fell into Gil, knocking them both through the door Gil had just opened, into a sprawling heap right at the feet of Liam Kosta. Reyes wasn’t sure which of the three of them was more surprised.

But it was the next voice that came through to his mind that made Reyes take notice, and it was because somehow, innately, he knew exactly whose voice it was.

“SAM!” it cried out in his mind. “Gil! _Help_!”

“Scott!” Reyes barked out loud, voice cracking and feeling like it had just torn a hole in his throat.

“Where are you?” Sara asked in thought, and Reyes had no idea how he knew it was her. “Scott!”

Liam tsked as he unholstered his Crusader and pointed it at Gil’s head. “Too bad, mate,” he said nonchalantly, with a coldness in his eyes that nearly made Rey’s heart stop. “I always liked you.”

Gil twisted away from the shot trajectory, grabbed Liam’s ankle and sliced straight through his left shin with his omni-blade. Liam’s bloodcurdling scream as he went down, Gil still holding the ankle of his severed foot in hand, threatened to send Reyes’ mind into overload but he managed to get to his feet by pulling himself up along a built-in shelving set right next to him. Gil turned around and vomited in the direction of the door they’d fallen through.

“Scott!” Reyes yelled in his mind. “Where’s _Scott_?”

“I see him!” that was Jaal, he just _knew_ it was him.

“Where is he?” Reyes attempted to think back.

“Who is that?” Jaal asked.

“It’s Reyes!” Sara replied. “I see Scott! Reyes, Gil, he’s in the compartment below yours…oh, shit, Cora’s got him! She has an Asari sword at his neck!”

“We cannot reach him!” Jaal advised. “We are pinned down by Akksul’s men and kett!”

Gil recovered himself enough to realize that Liam had gone for another of his weapons and through spit, blood and tears of pain and shock, was aiming it at Rey’s head.

“You sonofabitch,” Liam spat at the Charlatan. “If not for you, this would have been flawless!”

Without even thinking, Rey hauled back with his right hand and rasped, “ _¡Bola de fuego penetrante!_ ” An electric blue ball of fire just one inch in diamter, so bright that it was blinding, appeared in Reyes’ hand the same instant that he threw it, aimed perfectly for Liam’s forehead. It shot through his skull, leaving a gaping, cauterized hole. It took Liam mere seconds to catch up with the fact that he’d been killed, and his head lolled to his left, eyes still wide open, while Gil gaped openly at what had just occurred.

“Liam’s taken care of,” Gil thought to everyone. “That was fucking cool,” he breathed aloud to Rey.

“Scott!” Reyes thought.

“Rey…thank God…you’re alive. I…she’s going to kill me if any of you try to get me.”

“Where are you?”

“She’s taking me out to the kett transport.”

SAM interrupted them. “Mr. Qar reports that he has just released the corrupted signal via the feedback loop from his Kadara receiver to the Reaper ship as planned.”

“Good. Then at least that’s taken care of,” Scott replied.

There was a deafening explosion, and it rocked the structure so dramatically that Gil lost his footing and fell against the bulkhead. Contact with the corner of it knocked him unconscious.

“What was that?” Reyes asked in thought, clinging to the shelving.

“I used an old trick to turn my Soned into a bomb,” Jaal stated. “There are no longer stairs from the building to the landing platform.”

“And we have a way out,” Sara advised. “We should be able to hit the platform…oh, shit. Akksul.”

“Don’t worry,” Jaal thought to them all. “I’ve got this.”

“Scott?” Reyes asked in thought.

“She’s pissed because now she can’t get me up to the platform without my modified jump-jets, which she’s neutralized so I can’t get away.” Suddenly there was silence.

“Scott?” Reyes waited but heard nothing as he steadied himself on his feet and let go of the shelving to test his balance. He was doing better, but the room was spinning mercilessly, much like it had after his and Scott’s all-night drinking game bender at their hideaway, which had laid waste to some five bottles of whiskey. “Scott, are you there?”

“Reyes, Gil is unharmed but has lost consciousness. It appears that Scott, too, is unconscious, but his vitals are also strong. Sara and Jaal are busy with Akksul and his contingent nearer the western exit of the building you’re currently in. I believe they will be able to fight their way out unharmed, but activity on the landing platform would suggest that the kett are going to bring the transport to ground level to take Scott aboard.”

“No, _conjo_ , SAM, please, there must be something you can do!”

“I have attempted to neutralize Cora Harper through her SAM implant, but she has used her biotic capabilities to encase it in a way that will not allow me to interact with her physiology even should I manage to establish a connection.”

“Where is Scott right now?”

“Spatially, he is outside of the window directly to your right, on the ground.”

Reyes pulled himself over to the open roll-out flap and managed to poke his head through it enough to see Scott sprawled on the ground, arms and legs at odd angles.

It did something to his insides. Something he could not explain. Something that made him go rigid with fear and then feel anger pour into him like someone was overfilling his carafe with boiling hot water.

As SAM had predicted, while Reyes just stood there watching helplessly as he failed to make himself stand and walk unaided, the small kett transport lifted off from the landing pad, swung around and began to land some thirty feet from Scott’s prone form. Unfortunately, Cora was covering most of Scott’s body with her own, which meant most anything Rey might try to do to her with his magic might wind up hitting Scott as well given that he wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment.

But he knew that if he did nothing, Scott would soon either be dead or exalted and lost to the entirety of Andromeda forever.

Lost to _him_.

Before anyone could make another move, Reyes stuck both hands through the window and growled through clenched teeth, “ _¡Fuego movimiento lento!_ ” An electric blue and very thin blanket of fire lowered from his two palms and quickly slammed into Cora’s back. As if she’d been put into slow motion, every move she made now came as quickly as a sloth’s.

“Akksul’s down, his small contingent of angara are retreating, but we’ve got kett and Outcasts pouring out of the hills. They were prepared.”

“Sara,” Reyes thought back to her, “the kett are about to take your brother. I can’t…I can’t get myself to move.”

“Shit shit shit shit,” Sara thought back. “Jaal, I can’t break cover.”

“Neither can I!” Jaal barked. “Reyes, you _must_ be the one to save him!”

A thin sheen of sweat covered him as Reyes heard bullets and laser blasts flying outside. The door to the kett transport opened. Cora looked up and made eye contact with him as his spell wore off. She sneered at him, but in the moment when she raised both hands to undoubtedly hit him full force with her own powerful biotics, movement came from beneath her and Reyes nearly crowed in delight when he saw Scott had come to, grabbed her by the front of her clothing and tossed her away from himself even as four kett approached with weapons drawn.

In the split second that Scott’s and Reyes’ eyes met, Rey somehow knew everything was going to be okay, and huffed out a half-sob in relief.

But that relief, it seemed, had come too soon. For Scott tucked and rolled to his feet – a move Rey remembered so well from their confrontation with Farah and the Roekaar on Kadara – and came up shooting at the kett, no problem. But he didn’t see above and to his right, what Reyes saw.

There were two Hardline transports to the far right of where the kett had landed. Scott had three of the kett down and was playing hide and seek with the fourth when Reyes watched Cora jump-jet herself up to land atop the nearest six-wheeler. He watched her bare her Asari sword and knew as he looked at where her eyes were settling exactly what she was going to do.

Reyes felt the moment it happened. The moment fear, anger and a bone-deep desire to protect one soul in particular at all costs wrested his usually suave exterior and incomparable control from his grasp. He wasn’t certain whether it was blind instinct from his training or the incomparable depth of feeling he had for Scott, but once it had begun, he knew his entire body was no longer under his conscious control. It had occurred only once before…and was the reason he’d nearly been kicked out of SCAMP during his first year of training. This…was too unpredictable. What if…what if he..?

 _No no no no no…_ he begged his body, but it was too late.

“Reyes, what are you doing?” SAM managed to ask, but even he had reacted too slowly.

With an inhuman roar that sounded like a lion mixed with a dragon, Rey’s entire being flared electric blue, which under other circumstances would have seared every bit of armor, tech and clothing from his body, as he launched himself directly at Cora, melting straight through the side of the prefab room two stories up and more than forty feet away to do so.

The only thing he noted as he propelled himself forward laterally above the ground like a low-level bluefire missile shooting straight and true, was Scott’s eyes widening in disbelief as they followed his trajectory. Jutting forth from his fire, two sharp flames emerged from the undersides of his forearms and coalesced into assassin blades, which he held out in front of himself as though diving in perfect form into a swimming pool, only sideways. Cora leapt from the top of the six-wheeler just as Scott rounded the back corner of it to fire at the last kett, now in his sights.

The blue diamond-gold intermetallic daggers that had been passed to Reyes by his mentor, and were always magically inlaid into the skin of his forearms, now fused together, flaring in accordance with his entire being so everything was engulfed in hot blue fire. Then he reached his target, slamming into Cora just as the tip of her sword reached the top of Scott’s skull. She oof’d in shock, his merged blade ramming straight through her heart. Then she screamed in agony as the blue fire enveloped her head to toe. Within seconds, flashfire turned her to ash that Kadara’s warm breeze helpfully scattered.

Threat gone, it all stopped as suddenly as the whole thing had begun. Reyes returned to normal, his blades separating and melting back into his forearms as he tumbled a few times end over end, earning quite a few scrapes and bruises before landing on his back behind the second Hardline, staring up at a garish blue-green toadstool tree. Other than realizing how dry the ground felt on his entirely nude body, and hoping no voracious insects were nearby, the last thing he registered was the last thing he expected to see: Scott Ryder’s face full of concern and – awe? – staring down at him and yelling that he was going to be okay.

“Reyes?” came SAM’s voice. “That was impressive.”

If he could have huffed out a mental laugh, just then as he dove into the blackness of sleep, he would have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this chapter, 'Make Waves in the Blue Blue Fire," is actually lyrics from the song "Blue Fire" by Stateless. https://youtu.be/fdEAtJKs-Jw if you're interested.


	16. Blast From the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Reaper. A voice from long ago. And a shocking new piece of information about someone in the Heleus Cluster that ties them all together.

Scott raced to his lover’s side, skidding to a sideways halt right next to him on his right leg as he checked for a pulse…and found one, thready but steady, as his field medic trainer used to say. He let out a puff of air and managed to think, “Cora’s dead, Reyes is alive.”

“Gil, too,” came the engineer’s thought as he stumbled out of the structure rubbing the side of his head, face scrunched in pain. “Alive. More or less. Ow.”

“Oh, my God,” Sara hollered out loud as she and Jaal rounded the western end of the building. “Scott, look _up_!”

Gil and Scott followed Jaal and Sara’s shocked gazes into the sky. “Shit,” Scott breathed. “It’s the Reaper ship.”

Hanging high above them in the atmosphere, yet listing at an odd forty-five degree angle, was a gigantic metallic ship that did indeed resemble a squid and most definitely was the thing Dr. T’Soni had sent a picture of to Alec Ryder. It suddenly made a deafening sound like a foghorn on steroids and then for all the world sounded like it was screaming in a high-pitched metallic way.

Noting Reyes was completely nude and bleeding from practically everywhere, Scott was torn between trying to find him something to at least give him back some semblance of dignity and staring at the massive thing bearing down on Kadara.

“SAM, where’s Keema? Can you reach Ditaeon? Christmas answering?”

“Link established,” SAM responded. “The Reaper’s signal has been disrupted and is actively destroying its H-MEF protective layer as it falls through Kadara’s atmosphere.”

“Will it burn up?” Sara asked.

“Unknown, as I am unable to ascertain the composition of its hull. Scott, Mayor Tate has granted me access to the Initiative Outpost. One moment.” Scott decided he needed to get his man covered with something; if nothing else than for protection should he need to slap him awake and make him run for his life.

“Can someone get Reyes something to wear?” he asked as a nearby explosion from the structure sent an object whistling past his head. It landed with a dull thud about twenty feet away, right near the kett shuttle.

The kett shuttle!

“Wait, belay that!” Scott shouted as Sara and Jaal got about halfway back to the building’s western entrance. “Everyone into the kett shuttle _now_!”

“You know how to fly a kett shuttle?” Sara asked.

“I do,” Jaal offered. Off her incredulous look, he shrugged, “We of the Resistance have made a career, as you call it, of studying our enemy.” He smiled and hummed self-assuredly. “And their tech.”

“And whatever he can’t figure out, I can probably cobble together. Provided someone finds me something for this headache,” Gil added.

“Mr. Brodie, if you will grant me permission, I can temporarily deaden the nerves that are causing your headache from the blow you took.”

“Blow?” Scott asked. “What happened?”

“Explosion,” Gil explained as he took the co-pilot’s seat while Jaal slid into the pilot’s. “I was thrown into the wall. Got knocked out. Missed all the fancy Reyes-to-the-Rescue stuff, apparently.” He winced. “Just my luck. And yes, SAM, please provide relief.” A few seconds later and he “Ahhhh…” was good.

“Don’t worry, I think my helmet recorder picked it all up. We’ll watch it later with popcorn.”

“You’re on, Ryder-man.”

“Yes, this is a standard kett transport,” Jaal confirmed as he closed the side hatch and fired up the VTOL jets that brought the shuttle into hover mode. “No problem flying. Everyone ready?”

Sara nodded at Scott, who said, “Go, Jaal, get us to Ditaeon.”

“On our way.”

Jaal turned the aft viewers on and they all watched as the Reaper continued to list sideways, a red light in the center of what they might call its forehead flickering on and off repeatedly while what looked like red lightning emanated from it. For all intents and purposes, it appeared to be electrocuting itself from top to bottom.

“Scott,” SAM stated, piping himself over the shuttle’s communication system so everyone could hear his voice, “Mr. Qar is attempting to get through. One moment.”

“Gil!”

“Dave?” Gil asked, feeling much, much better now that his headache had been blocked by SAM.

“Thank God you’re okay.”

Gil blushed a little. “I’m okay. What’s the story?”

“I’ve been monitoring that Reaper ever since I sent the new signal embedded with bad code. Within five minutes of the code starting to wreak havoc inside the field, my incoming one hit one of their outgoing ones and it seemed to back up into the ship’s electronics. But that’s when I started getting another signal coming from _inside_ the ship.”

“What sort of signal?” Gil asked. “A secondary one from the Reapers?”

“No,” Davis replied. “Guys…this is an _Alliance military_ signal.”

“Alliance military?” Scott repeated. “Where’d you say it’s coming from?”

“I would say from _inside_ the ship, but the massive interference in the H-MEF that’s taking the ship down right now, is blocking my ability to pinpoint an exact location.”

“What manner of signal is this?” Jaal asked.

“On a guess, based on the frequency and pulse, I’d call it an automated one, but for what purpose I couldn’t say. If there’s information contained within it, like a code or a verbal recording or anything at all, I can’t pick it up while the signals are running amok.”

“Alliance military,” Scott breathed. “I don’t get it. Why would they have put something aboard a Reaper ship that would send out an automated signal? Given what Dr. T’Soni told Dad of them, _how_ would they even have been able to?”

“Is it possible,” Sara posited, “that they somehow knew the Reaper was coming after us and managed to get a beacon in there that would warn us when it got too close?”

“I don’t see how they could get into it, especially considering that the Illusive Man was attempting to control them without success.”

“Yeah,” Gil nodded at Scott’s thought process. “But someone who knew what they were doing wouldn’t have to store a beacon on the inside of any ship. They could just have attached it to the outside.”

“What if it was Cora who did it?” Sara asked. “She was, after all, trying to control this one like her father had tried to, right?”

Scott shook his head. “But she wasn’t Alliance when she signed up with Dad for the Initiative. She’d already left the military. What could she possibly have put on the Reaper that registers Alliance?”

“SAM,” Davis asked, “if I feed you a thirty-second segment I’ve managed to isolate, do you think you can clean it up?”

“I can certainly try, Mr. Qar.”

“All right. Here…uploading…now.”

“Thank you. One moment.” Just as Ditaeon’s tallest spire was appearing on the horizon, SAM announced, “I have successfully isolated a vocalized message. I will play it here.”

Scott held Reyes’ head in his lap, his fingers absently carding through the man’s hair as a disembodied voice he somehow thought he should know, wafted through the cabin.

_“…hearing this message it’s because despite our best efforts, a Reaper has escaped destruction.”_

“Who is that?” Sara asked as they all listened to the male voice coming from the transport’s speakers.

Gil and Scott shrugged and shook their heads.

_“It is imperative that you destroy any…as possible. They are most vulnerable within their red…to pull it off. Reapers are artificial intelligence and it’s that AI…the Reaper itself to die. Activate…the only thing that will work if I have failed.”_

“Holy shit,” Gil breathed. “That entire ship is an AI? With a…ship-body?”

Sara made a questioning face. “What’s meant to be activated?”

_“This is Commander John Shepard, Alliance military. If you are hearing this message—"_ And then it cut off.

Sara’s jaw dropped. “Commander Shepard? As in, the Hero of the Citadel? _The_ John Shepard?”

“Hero worshipper,” Scott teased.

“Oh, please, you had a Shepard poster hanging in your room when you last deployed,” she responded.

Scott had the good grace to blush.

“I have pieced the complete message together,” SAM advised. “Replaying.”

_“This is Commander John Shepard, Alliance military. If you are hearing this message in the Andromeda Galaxy then I ask your forgiveness, because it means that despite our best efforts, a Reaper has escaped destruction. It is imperative that you destroy it as quickly as possible. They are most vulnerable within their red circular ‘eye,’ but you need massive firepower to pull it off. Reapers are artificial intelligence and it’s that AI which must be destroyed for the Reaper itself to die. Activate Anubis to proceed. It’s the only thing that will work for those of you in Andromeda if I have failed.”_

“We’ve got to figure out what he’s talking about,” Jaal stated as he brought the kett transport in for a landing at Ditaeon. “Scott, do you need me to take Reyes for you?”

“Yes, please,” Scott breathed. “Thank you. I’m sure I could carry him, but maybe not all the way to their med bay.”

“No problem. Eh…do you wish to…cover him? Others will surely be about.”

“Oh. Right, yes. Um…” Scott looked around everywhere. “Oh, screw it,” he finally said. Within seconds he’d stripped off his gloves and the upper portion of his armor, removed his shirt and tied it around Reyes’ waist. “There. I’ll follow you, Jaal.”

The angara nodded, lifting Reyes into his arms effortlessly as the shuttle’s hatch opened.

“Scott,” came SAM’s voice privately to Scott only.

“Yeah?”

“I have found reference to Anubis.”

“Then why aren’t you telling all of us at the same time?” Scott asked in thought as he followed Jaal-carrying-Reyes from the shuttle.

“Because according to what little of Mr. Vidal’s records survived the destruction of several servers during the _Nexus_ uprising, he was specifically assigned to the Andromeda Initiative and was supposed to be piloting a shuttle called _Anubis_ but the shuttle was stolen by exiles and later found to have run into a band of Scourge.”

“Are you telling me that the one and only thing that over six hundred years ago Commander Shepard specifically said could kill the Reaper hanging over Kadara right now, was destroyed when exiles took it joyriding?”

“Not exactly,” SAM replied. “The records were hacked in the aftermath of the uprising. I detect that the word Anubis was removed from its original context to purposely obfuscate the reference.”

“Meaning?” Scott asked as he followed Jaal hurriedly up the steps to the med bay, where he could already see Christmas Tate waiting for them by the opened doors.

“Meaning I believe that Anubis wasn’t referring to Mr. Vidal’s assigned shuttle, but to Mr. Vidal himself.”


	17. Bluefire And All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott's got to wrap his head around who and what Reyes really is, all the while battling his own fears about what is yet to come.
> 
> Also, I love Dr. Harry. Just sayin'.

Scott paced the _Hyperion_ medical bay. Eventually, as doctors worked to ensure the health of his entire party, and he worked with SAM to have angaran allies rescue the _Tempest_ crew from the various places they’d landed after evacuating – with orders to take the engineer who’d rigged the whole thing to blow to begin with prisoner – SAM had figured out a few things that set Scott’s teeth on edge.

Reyes wasn’t just some shuttle pilot. He wasn’t just an Ai transplant-turned-exile. He wasn’t just a smuggler. He wasn’t even “just” the Charlatan.

Reyes Vidal was a highly trained Alliance assassin; an unfettered biotic whose sole purpose in Heleus was supposed to have been acting as human Pathfinder Alec Ryder’s shadow in all things, to ensure both his survival and the non-survival of all who opposed him. He was supposed to have been Alec’s ace in the hole and the Milky Way pioneers’ salvation should the worst come to pass…should the Reapers _not_ leave their galaxy-cleansing to only one galaxy.

Scott had endured endless minutes as SAM uncovered all that and more as the final of his father’s memories that they had never been able to unlock before, which had been a long conversation with Admiral Hackett of Alliance military. And all it had taken for him to gain access was using Reyes’ first and last name as a password. Evidently Alec had not intended for Scott to ever know about Anubis unless and until he became somehow aware of the smuggler-cum-King of Kadara Port well enough that it would occur to him to try the man’s name as password.

Scott rubbed his temples. The implication that hung over everything, was that if Reyes had not left the Nexus with the other exiles then he would have been there to help them on Ryder 1 – then, Habitat 7. That Alec may not have had to die to save his son’s life.

And Scott knew damn well that had Rey been there, _he_ would’ve been the one dying to give his helmet to Scott. Or Alec, whichever, because his mandate was to be the thing that kept Pathfinder Ryder alive. Point being, Scott would’ve either lost his father, whom he barely knew, or Reyes, who at that point he would only have just met and probably regarded with lots of suspicion given that he’d been assigned to the Pathfinder team by the highest Alliance brass that existed at the time the Nexus had launched from space dock.

Or…maybe nothing that happened would ever have happened to begin with. Maybe Reyes would’ve gone into the vault with Dad. Maybe Reyes wouldn’t have _let_ Dad go in. Maybe Reyes would’ve been with both Alec _and_ Scott in the vault. Maybe Scott wouldn’t even have been planetside if Reyes had been there. There were far too many possibilities for the current Pathfinder to even wrap his head around ten or fifteen, never mind the lot.

Scott finally sat down on the edge of the bed nearest Rey’s. He ran his hands through his hair. Now…even having sifted through all the what-if’s and coulda-been’s that had come to mind before he’d cut off the train so he didn’t work himself into a frenzy, Scott had to face launching the man he needed like oxygen at the biggest threat that had ever faced the Milky Way galaxy and possibly even Andromeda, kett notwithstanding.

The simple truths that turned out to be anything but were admittedly overwhelming, but there was one thing Scott would never doubt, and that was how he and Reyes felt about each other. Without a shadow of a doubt, they were rock-solid in a universe where most people, places and things were anything but. That his boyfriend happened to be the son of the man Reyes had been sent here to guard was largely irrelevant save for the fact that it gave Scott extra ammunition for always having Reyes by his side once the Reaper threat had been neutralized. And he was not above taking full advantage of that if it kept Reyes within arm’s reach.

Besides, Scott would never knock having another ace up his sleeve in their desperate bid to survive in a foreign galaxy despite his terrible poker face. He breathed in. Breathed out. Tried to stave off the same kind of panic attack that he’d had just before he and Reyes had been forced to leave their hideaway. Noticed Gil watching him closely from across the room where he was currently getting treatment for mild bruising of his brain due to the blow he’d taken. Smiled tiredly at the man. Watched Davis Qar dash in through the open doorway. Looked away to give them the privacy they deserved as Davis kissed his fear away against Gil’s grateful lips.

Then Scott’s mind zapped back to that panic attack in the hideaway. If only he’d paid attention to it, Reyes would never have been kidnapped. He knew that as surely as he knew his own name. Even SAM had agreed that there was a 95.67% chance Scott’s postulation was correct and that was freakin’ high odds for his AI symbiote. No, this panic attack he was on the verge of now, this wasn’t just an Ialmostlosthimandnowhavetosendhimintodangeragain type of thing. After all, Scott was not a teenage girl, although sometimes the way he giggled when Reyes tickled him – the bastard – might have had Sara snorting otherwise with pointed fingers and a stuck-out tongue.

Some things never changed between twins, after all.

No, this…feeling, this…dread…it was something Scott wasn’t going to ignore again.

_Wake up for me,_ he thought, eyes glued to Reyes’ closed ones, just as Lexi came stalking through the same door Davis had entered from. And Scott groaned, because he knew he was in for a fight.

* * *

“…telling you it’s far too dangerous to have an unfettered biotic anywhere near you, let alone aboard the _Hyperion_! And now you’re telling me he also has the power of SAM within him?”

“It’s not full power, not like me. It’s only nanos. SAM can use them to monitor him, Lexi, and now that he knows what to look for, he can stop him if things happen.”

Reyes groaned. Instantly he felt his hand clasped and knew without looking, simply by feel, who it was that had it. “Things won’t happen,” he managed to croak, throat feeling like he’d not had anything to drink in a month, “unless you get betrayed by a close crewmember again. Then, no guarantees.” He squeezed Scott’s hand. “Surprise, _amor_.”

“You’re just full of ‘em,” Scott replied, but his voice broke on the last word and he hitched in a breath. “Thank God,” he breathed, grasping Reyes’ hand with both of his now and bowing his forehead to the tangle of fingers.

“Scott, this discussion is not over.”

“Harry, help me out here,” Scott stated evenly as he lifted his head from their hands.

“She’s not wrong,” Harry’s always soft and soothing voice replied. The fondness with which he held the Ryder twins made Scott feel like maybe he had a father figure around after all…one who might actually be helpful if he let his guard down long enough to talk to the man. “But Lexi, rest assured that while Mr. Vidal is our guest, he will be monitored round-the-clock by machinery and people alike.”

Scott nodded. “Lexi, I love you, we all do, because you love _us_ enough to worry this much.” He thought Lexi may have just blushed, but it was hard to tell with Asari. “I both appreciate and understand why you’re so concerned. But until we know exactly what’s going on, I trust SAM to keep me and this entire ship – as well as everything outside it – safe.”

“The same SAM who kills you from time to time?” Lexi asked airily with all the sarcasm she could muster. “Forgive me for not finding that at _all_ reassuring.” Without another word she turned and stormed out of the _Hyperion_ ’s medical bay.

“I’ve caused you…some fair bit…of trouble, _cariño_ , _lo siento_.”

“Nonsense,” Harry interrupted as he made a thorough check of Reyes’ vital signs. “You saved Scott’s life. You saved Gil’s life.” He looked thoughtfully at the readout on his screen and nodded. “And you apparently have some incredibly interesting abilities that unfortunately bring out my Dr. Jekyll desire to turn you into a lab rat.”

Rey huffed out a tired laugh. “And you wonder why nobody knows.”

Scott shook his head. “Lexi’s an Asari who doesn’t like that a human can do what supposedly only her race can is all. She thinks we’re too young and short-lived as a species to grasp what it seems you’re capable of.”

Reyes tried peeling his eyelids open. He halfway succeeded and asked, “Really?”

“Yes? No. I don’t know. Right now I don’t care. I just…dammit, Rey, just…rest, okay? Get better. It’s… _shit_.”

Reyes smiled faintly, raised his free hand and placed it palm-flat against Scott’s cheek. His thumb rubbed briefly before he lost strength and it fell back to the bed. “I…have SAM in my…head…now?”

“More like running around in your blood and organs.”

Reyes made a face.

“I’m…really sorry I didn’t ask first but you were about to—” Scott hitched in three or four breaths one right after the other, trying like hell to hold himself back from the sob that wanted to wrench itself free. “I would have done anything to save you.”

Reyes smiled as consciousness began slipping away. “And I, you.” With that, he was asleep.

* * *

“You _did_ do anything, Reyes,” Scott whispered, kissing Reyes’ knuckles and squeezing his hand even harder as his eyes grew wet. “You turned into a fucking superhero.” He choked on a laugh and a tear fell to the bedsheet. Felt Harry’s strong, supportive hand on his shoulder.

It was okay now.

Except there was still a Reaper over Kadara.

Everything was going to be okay.

Scott looked at his lover’s placid, sleeping face. Gratefully accepted Harry’s hand squeezing his shoulder. “What do I do?” he asked the doctor, voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t send him up against that thing. Even malfunctioning it’s capable of death on an untold scale.”

“Unless I miss my guess, you won’t have to send him,” Harry replied, and Scott turned his face up to meet the doctor’s eyes. “Because Mr. Vidal will insist upon doing it himself regardless of your opinion.”

“That doesn’t make it any less terrifying.”

“Than you going up against wildlife the size of dinosaurs?” Harry asked. “Than you going up against the Roekaar who hate us because we’re not angaran? Than you going up against a fully-manned kett facility containing exaltation equipment? Than you going up against Sloane Kelly? Outlaws? The Scourge? Remnant? The _Archon_?”

Scott snorted. “What is this, a laundry list of my Heleus exploits?”

“No,” Harry said, shaking his head and making sure he had hold of Scott’s gaze. “It’s what the rest of us have to sit by and endure worrying about you through, your Reyes included.”

Scott glanced at Rey, feeling the truth in Harry’s words.

“He’s forced to wait on Kadara conducting his day-to-day, while you galivant through the Heleus Cluster facing death and danger at every turn, just like I have to sit here and be everyone’s doctor with a halfway decent bedside manner while my oldest and dearest friend’s son’s life is at risk from technology and aliens we barely understand. Just like Sara had to watch newsfeeds while she recovered, praying she wouldn’t lose her brother before she was well enough to join him. Just like anyone and everyone who cares about you has to, Scott.”

Huffing out a halfway embarrassed sigh, Scott nodded. “But this is Rey.” He looked away. “He’s…” Scott shook his head. Willed the forming lump in his throat away. “I can’t lose him, Harry.” He shook his head. Met the doctor’s eyes again. “I wouldn’t survive it.”

“You would,” Harry countered with another squeeze to his shoulder. “And anyway, you know it’s not your decision to make.” He let go and turned to leave the medical bay. “Pathfinder or no, this one’s on him.”

Scott watched the steady rise and fall of Rey’s chest. Harry was right. Harry was _always_ right.

But all it meant was that Scott wasn’t going to let his…he smiled…his future _husband_ , if he had anything to say about it…go this alone.

Bluefire and all.


	18. The Calm Before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyes and Scott prepare for the inevitable confrontation with the Reaper.

Scott watched as Reyes finished pulling on what he called his BASS – the SCAMP-developed armor made specifically for him, dubbed Balanced Assassin Synchronization Suit. Rey made some weak jokes about Scott being all about that bass but everything fell as flat as Scott had forced his emotions into being. Because they were soldiers, the both of them. And once Reyes Vidal AKA the Charlatan AKA Anubis had been briefed on the Reaper threat, his face had hardened, his lips had thinned and he had revealed something that had been dubbed so Top Secret at the time that even Alec hadn’t known about it.

Yes, he had been assigned to the Andromeda Initiative’s human Pathfinder as his specialized assassin, meaning he shadowed him in all things and did what any old-time assassin from the medieval days might’ve done, only with a metric fuckton more technology. Whether it was making sure the fallen were truly dead so they couldn’t rise up and shoot the Pathfinder team members in the back, or going in as a one-man show to eliminate targets, gather information or simply spy on a foe, these were all the specialized things Reyes had been trained to do. And why? Because he was what the Alliance military – and everyone else in the Milky Way – called a biotic. And an unfettered one, to boot. No implants. Nothing to alter in any way his organic born-with-‘em capabilities.

“But here’s the thing,” Reyes had confided solely to Scott later on. “What you all call biotics is nothing more than what the ancients called magic. _Real_ magic. Technically speaking, anyone born with ‘biotics’ is a mage, and the manifestation of ‘biotics’ is nothing more than an ability to manipulate the fabric of the universe into some other form of energy. In other words: magic.”

There hadn’t been a lot of time to delve into the specifics, for the Reaper had recovered well enough despite the damage done by Davis Qar’s corrupted signal that it was currently _en route_ to Kadara Port to begin its reign of terror. And as Reyes said to Scott, “Even if I wasn’t the one and only weapon Admiral Hackett sent with you to do in any Reapers that may have followed us here, I’d be going down there and doing everything I could simply because I’m the Charlatan. Kadara is mine to protect, Scott, and you know it.”

“ _Ours_ , you fucking pain in the ass,” Scott had retorted.

But they weren’t letting Reyes go it alone. Yes, it had to be him with his specialized suit and him with his full-body hotter-than-incineration bluefire biotics – or magic, as he called it – and him with his unbreakable quasi-magical blades that could pierce through a diamond as thick as the _Tempest_ was wide, to hit the Reaper’s weakest point and do enough damage for other firepower to actually bring down. But aside from so-called Anubis, there was an entire assault that was being planned to both assist him and ensure the safety of the people of Kadara. Scott would lead the air efforts with Christmas coordinating from Ditaeon, Kheema handling Port evacuations and Dr. Nakamoto coordinating the same for the Slums, both of which had begun two hours earlier.

Soon the sun would rise over Kadara Port and the assault would begin. Scott sat down next to Reyes on a bench in the room they were using for loadout, as the man he loved put on his special boots. They hissed as they hermetically sealed to his leg armor.

“What are you thinking about right now?” Reyes asked, hand rising to caress Scott’s cheek.

“Us sitting on that roof as the sun rose,” Scott replied. “Sharing that whisky treasure.”

“Sharing that kiss,” Reyes smiled, leaning in and leaving him with just a soft touch of their lips.

“I told you later, when you insisted we dance together, that I didn’t know you had a romantic side.”

“And I told you there was a lot you didn’t know about me.”

“You didn’t want to keep secrets from me.” Scott looked him in the eyes. “Does that mean you wanted to tell me? About Anubis, SCAMP, your bio…your m…magic?”

Reyes nodded. His hand fell away and he pulled on his gloves, carefully ensuring his fingers were in just the right places within. “I was ready to sit you down right then and there and confess everything to you. I was so afraid you’d hate me or think that I’d gone after you because you were the son of the original Pathfinder I was sent to shadow. I was worried,” he stated as his left glove hermetically sealed to his BASS sleeve armor, “that you would think I was using you for something since you were now the Pathfinder.”

“You didn’t consider that ‘keeping the big stuff’ from me?”

“Not really since I had no plans to become that person again. I had made a whole new life for myself, fully believing the _Hyperion_ would never show.” He shook his head as the other glove went on and sealed. “Forgive me. I might have saved your father’s life had I not stubbornly refused to seek out a man who also did not seek _me_ out, even though he knew who I was and where I was the moment he arrived in Heleus.”

“Wait…Dad knew you were thawed out and on Kadara?”

Reyes nodded. “He sent me a terse message indicating that since I had chosen to ally myself with the rebellious exiles, my services to the Pathfinder team were no longer required.”

“So…it was _his_ doing that you didn’t accompany us to Habitat 7?” Scott asked somewhat breathlessly.

“Yes. I therefore resigned myself to the fact that I was now and forever the Charlatan, and that the skills I had would only be used if, when and where they might be needed at some future date. But certainly not for the Pathfinder team.”

“And then you met me.”

Reyes nodded and smiled. “And then I met you, and I hate you for that complication every waking moment.”

Scott chuckled. “I’m sure you do.”

Reyes rose to his feet, schooled his features into a carefully placid mask, grabbed his helmet and said, “Good luck on the ground, Pathfinder. I’ll let you know when I launch myself at the Reaper. You will have approximately sixty-five seconds from that moment before your weapons will become effective.”

As the Charlatan turned to walk away, Scott reached out, grabbed him by the arm, reeled him in and kissed him long and hard. When he finally released him, he said, “I’m having the same panic attack I had at the hideaway.”

“You don’t look as if you are,” Reyes frowned, scrutinizing Scott’s face.

“I smashed it down with a hammer. Rey, look, I know there are a lot of fucking secrets here, about you, Anubis, what you can do, how you’re even meant to stop the Reaper and why it can only be you. But you have to help me out here. I already fucked up by not listening to my gut once. I’m not doing it again.”

“You won’t let me go fulfill my duty?”

“Not unless I know I’m not making the same mistake twice.”

“What can I tell you to reassure you?”

“How it’s going to go down!” Scott pushed away from Reyes and threw his hands in the air, twirling twice in place like a dancing pirouette. “Fucking hell, Rey, you’re getting a shuttle piloted by Kallo, the best pilot we have, to drop you directly in front of that thing. _Why_? What are you going to _do_?”

Reyes huffed out a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Burn hotter than the sun, Scott.”

“What will that do to you?”

“You saw what it did yesterday when I incinerated Cora.”

“So…no damage?”

“Not theoretically. BASS is designed to let my magic out but not allow it to reverberate back on me, protecting me should my target attempt that as a defense tactic. It’s also nearly as strong as my blades, which protects me from any impacts.”

“Has all of this been tested?”

“Well, not against an actual Reaper, but yes.”

“Did you know John Shepard?”

Reyes breathed out. “Early on, he was the one who trained me to use the magic.”

“Wait…” Scott breathed, running a hand through his hair. “Shepard was unfettered?”

“Yes. It was purposely kept secret. He was SCAMP’s first trainee. Its first graduate. But his biotics – or magic – weren’t as powerful as mine because he didn’t have the firepower. What you call my bluefire. His magic was more about protection and barriers and doing things like lifting, levitating, pushing, pulling, the more standard feats.”

“Whereas your talent has always been fire.”

“Yes. That’s why I had to have a special mentor. These were that mentor’s blades. He was also unfettered, but he had never been fitted with an implant. He was…is, I suppose, given that he might still be alive back there…a krogan.”

“SAM, I want stats.”

“There is a 86.3% chance that Reyes will survive the entire attack without injury, including success of his mission.”

“See? Good odds. Even Gil would take those,” Reyes joked.

Scott didn’t smile. “Then my gut’s churning because of the other 13.7%. _That_ is what I have to try to account for. To counter. Tell me, Reyes, and don’t fucking lie to me. What _could_ go wrong here?”

Reyes paced away. Stood with his back to Scott for a few seconds. “It’s all theoretical. I have never tested what I’m about to do on a living entity, most especially not one the size of a Reaper.” He turned to face him. “That’s why we need you and the ground crew on-hand to use conventional weapons for the take-down. Just in case my attempts to incinerate the thing fail.”

“Scott,” SAM interrupted, “Kallo is calling for Reyes. It’s time to go.”

This time it was Reyes who rushed to Scott, took his head between his hands and kissed him soundly.

There was no time left. Kadara was in too much danger for him to keep waffling or talking or worrying. It was soldier time. He nodded once when Reyes backed away. “I’ll see you at the hideaway.”

“Promise?” Reyes asked as he settled his helmet over his head. Dressed as he was all in black, he was the picture of effortless stealth and probably the wet dream of many men and women alike who would’ve loved to have such a man in their bed. Scott almost felt smug knowing his was the only bed that the magic-wielding Anubis would be getting into. If this all went off without a hitch, of course.

“Promise,” Scott replied. He watched as Reyes walked out of the room, passing Gil, who was walking in already armored head to toe.

“Nice gear. Was that Reyes?” Gil asked as Scott hurriedly donned his helmet.

“It was.”

“You okay?”

“Why are you wearing armor?”

“Stop deflecting. I’m coming with you.”

“But you’re a non-combatant!”

“A fact you conveniently forgot when you took me with you to rescue the man that just left your company,” Gil replied with great sarcasm.

“Shit.”

“I told you I was in your back pocket now. Lexi’s furious. So let’s make her even madder by proving neither of us will get killed today, all right?”

Scott took a deep breath as Gil checked his weapons against his back for him. Scott turned and did the same for Gil once he’d finished.

“It’ll all be okay, you’ll see,” Gil assured him as they walked out of the room under the med bay in Ditaeon. “Your guy is bad-ass. He’ll make it.”

“Right,” Scott nodded, back going ramrod straight. “Let’s do this.”

“That’s the way. Odds are in our favor. I’ll take the bet that squid-ship slapped down on the table and raise it good.”

There were times, Scott thought, that he was exceedingly grateful for Gil’s friendship. As they headed into the unknown together, for yet another could-end-it-all battle, he said, “You’re on.”

It was time to play the best hand of their lives.


	19. Going After the Reaper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott leads the fight as the Heleus Cluster's residents unleash their secret weapon Anubis upon the Reaper that threatens them all.

Scott sat in the copilot’s seat of the kett shuttle they’d commandeered in rescuing Reyes, while Jaal flew her like he’d been piloting their enemy’s ships his entire life. There were two short benches behind the cockpit, one of which held Gil and Harry. Scott turned around and looked at his family’s long-time friend.

“I cannot believe you volunteered to come with us,” Scott observed with a slight frown. “You and Gil are both non-combatants. What the hell am I doing?”

“What you always do,” Harry replied as he turned to let Gil check the weapons on his back. “Leading us all to victory.”

“While giving everyone palpitations,” Jaal supplied with a grin.

Harry barked out a laugh. “Well, I decided that I can’t just sit around the rest of my life in Andromeda wasting away on the _Hyperion_. I may as well have stayed in the Milky Way for all that. No, you need a medic in case things slip sideways, and I’m the best human one in this galaxy.”

“Humble, too,” Gil added, patting Harry’s back to let him know he was finished checking his gear.

Harry chuckled. Scott grinned.

_“Shuttle Anubis to Kett-1, come in.”_

“Kett-1 here,” Jaal replied. “Go ahead, Kallo.”

“Payload ready. Departing surface. Will be following Plan A-3 flight trajectory due to position change in the Reaper.”

“Understood,” Scott answered. “Jaal, right behind him.”

“You got it, Ryder.”

“SAM, how’s Sara’s end of things going? I don’t want to distract her asking for a sitrep.”

“She and her team have reached the designated coordinates on Kadara. They are in the process of completing the assembly that Christmas’s team began.”

“Now, what is it they’re assembling?” Harry asked. “I missed that debrief.”

“Christmas and most of the Ditaeon staff are miners,” Scott explained. “Between the helium-3 mining operations we recovered for the Initiative on H-047c and the equipment that came with his crew from the Milky Way for mineral mining, they had enough explosive warhead-like detonators that’re usually used for blasting mountains apart for him to fashion something like old-time missiles from a century ago…well, seven centuries ago now, I guess. Sara’s going to use them as First Strike in the ground war against the Reaper once it’s down.”

“That’s my girl,” Jaal said softly, and Scott smiled. Nothing like knowing Sara would be well looked after should anything happen to him.

“I think the both of you are certifiable,” Harry stated.

“Well, look at who our parents were.”

Harry snorted. “Game and set.”

“Oh, I miss tennis,” Gil complained. “Ryder, we need to build a tennis court.”

“I’ll get right on that after this whole pesky Reaper thing,” Scott replied.

“I’m holding you to that.”

Scott winked at him.

_“Kett-1, this is Anubis shuttle. Payload will be delivered in five minutes…mark.”_

“Thanks, Kallo. This is Kett-1 to Blue Squadron. Come in.”

_“Blue Squadron here. Green across the board, Ryder. We’re ready to come in from your left flank.”_

“Thanks, Vetra. Kett-1 to Red Squadron. Come in, Drack.”

_“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Ryder. Red Squadron’s got your right.”_

The corner of Scott’s mouth curved upward as he shook his head. “Thanks. Kett-1 to White Squadron, come in, Avitus.”

_“From one Pathfinder to another, I have to say, Ryder, you sure don’t let things stay dull for long, do you?”_

Scott chuckled. “Wouldn’t want you going soft.”

_“Perish the thought. White Squadron reports green lights. We’re in position directly behind you.”_

“Thanks, Avi,” Scott said with a private smile, remembering when the turian Pathfinder had quietly asked him to call him the nickname that once only his lover Macen had called him. The men had bonded thick as thieves since Avi had taken on the role and Scott knew the turian would have his back no matter what crazy scheme he launched headlong into.

“Scott,” SAM interrupted, “Sara asked me to tell you to stop fretting about her, and that all four of their missiles are set and primed.”

With a barked-out laugh, Scott made a face. “She’s such a pain. Thanks, SAM. This is Kett-1 to Ground Force Alpha, do you copy?”

_“Reading you five-by-five, Pathfinder,”_ came the voice of the asari pathfinder. _“We’ve just reached the coordinates. Am about to speak with Sara and get ourselves in place.”_

“Understood. Thanks, Vederia. Kett-1 to Ground Force Beta, come in.”

_“Captain Dunn here, Ryder. We’re ready for that big bastard to fall. We’ll be swarming it like flies on shit.”_

“And this is why you will always be my favorite captain.”

She snorted through the airwaves.

“Thanks, Captain. Kett-1 to Ground Force Gamma.”

_“Pathfinder Hayjer reporting in, Ryder. We’re in place, ready like Dunn to hit it hard once it’s down.”_

“Thanks, Hayjer. Appreciate the assist.”

_“We can’t keep letting you get all the glory, you know.”_

Scott laughed out loud. Harry and Gil chuckled.

“He’s got you there,” Jaal commented with a grin.

Scott knew that everyone was trying to keep things light for his sake. He wasn’t stupid. Every single person involved in this endeavor knew only a code name for what was being sent first into the eye of the beast. But only two handfuls of those people knew that Anubis was a who rather than a what, and further what that ‘he’ meant to Scott.

The human Pathfinder felt his heart flop in his chest as quietly, within his mind, he thought, _“Reyes?”_

_“I’m here, amor.”_

_“Ready?”_

_“Ready.”_

_“Be careful?”_

_“Always, Pathfinder.”_

Scott closed his eyes and pictured Reyes’ face before him. _“Marry me?”_ his mind blurted out. He felt his ears get hot.

There were several seconds of silence before the thought returned, _“I thought you’d never ask.”_

When Scott’s eyes opened, they were moist. _“Is that a yes?”_ he asked, a grin blossoming onto his face.

_“Ah, mi tesoro, your timing is shit. It always has been a yes. It always will be a yes. Now stop distracting me, you beautiful bastard.”_

“That’s my line.”

_“Shuttle Anubis to all squadron leaders. Mission is Go in sixty seconds…mark.”_

This was it. Now…it was gonna be whatever it was gonna be.

In one minute, Reyes Vidal would shoot out of a shuttle like a rocket, straight into the angry, red eye of a Reaper.

In less than a minute, Anubis would penetrate the enemy, bluefire blazing hotter than the sun over Elaaden.

In thirty seconds, the only person Scott had ever loved with this much clarity, devotion and ferocity, would be headed into the unknown faster than SAM could even think.

He watched the countdown timer on the shuttle control panel. Felt his chest heave as the familiar throes of a panic attack clawed its way up from the bottom of his gut. Everything in him wanted to scream at everyone involved to abort. He felt Gil’s hand on his shoulder. Looked up at him. Knew by the look on Gil’s face that he was indeed, panicking in an outwardly visible way, and that Gil was trying like hell to haul him from the pit without making a big, fat, hairy deal out of it.

Why wasn’t Scott listening to his gut this time? Had he not learned the first time when Reyes had been kidnapped and nearly died? Why was he letting him go into an even _more_ dangerous situation when he knew, he knew, he _knew_?

Twenty seconds.

Scott forced it back down again. Reconstructed himself, burying emotions that could get him killed in battle as far down into his psyche as he could. Gil squeezed his shoulder and returned to the bench.

Ten seconds.

_“Nine,”_ came Kallo’s voice over the radio, broadcasting to all ships, transports, squadrons and teams. _“Eight…seven…six…”_

Scott readied his hands on the shuttle’s weapons panel. “Force field going up now,” he reported.

Because what Reyes didn’t know, is that Scott wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He knew what that red eye had the capability of doing based on everything Liara T’Soni had told his father, and he’d be damned if it would take his man down before his man took _it_ down.

_“Four…three…”_

Scott wiped the sweat from his brow.

_“Two…one. Anubis…away!”_

They watched out the front windows of the shuttle as Anubis launched himself from the side hatch straight at the Reaper’s red eye. Suddenly he burst into bright blue flames as Kallo managed to veer off to the left before smacking into the metal hull. They all watched cobalt flames so blue they very nearly ventured into purple, darken and become tinged with white, as Anubis streaked toward the red eye leaving a trail behind him like a comet.

The Reaper turned slightly to meet its attacker head-on. They heard a horrific sound, a mega-loud foghorn so densely packed on multiple frequencies that it tore through the shuttle’s hull like a sound bomb and pierced their skulls.

_“Almost there,”_ Anubis reported. Scott could tell Reyes’ teeth were gritted.

He readied his finger over the button that would launch the one nuclear warhead they’d managed to find in the belly of the _Hyperion_. The BASS would keep Anubis safe if they had to detonate it. He waited, sweat forming on his brow.

_“Oh, shit.”_ A familiar exclamation from Reyes, but said quietly.

“What is it?” Scott asked. And then he saw. “Shit.”

_“She’s opening to fire,”_ Anubis reported.

“I’ve got your six,” Scott replied.

_“What? What are you going to do?”_

“Keep her busy long enough for you to get inside.”

_“Scott…”_

“Trust me,” he said softly.

_“Maricón,”_ Reyes cursed at him.

“Jaal, be ready.”

“I am.”

The red eye began to glow. Scott knew it was now or never and pressed the button. The missile left the top of the shuttle and whizzed past Anubis, just to his left.

_“¡Puta madre!”_ Reyes shouted in surprise.

Scott grinned.

It hit its mark, dead center. The resulting explosion deadened the red eye completely. By the time Anubis hit it, it had gone completely dark.

“Everyone stand by,” Scott ordered through the comms. “Anubis has engaged.”

They waited for what seemed to be endless seconds. Finally, Scott could stand it no longer. He went internal, asking, _“Reyes?”_

No response.

All at once the formerly red eye lit up the color of Reyes’ bluefire and the ship began pirouetting on its y axis.

“Red Leader, come around to these coordinates!” Scott barked, using his omnitool to calculate them and send it on to Drack. “Blue Leader, new heading, sending your way.” He performed another series of calculations on the omnitool and shot those off to Vetra. “White Squadron, fan out and come up from beneath. Hit its belly with everything you’ve got.”

Suddenly a bright blue light smashed through the backside of the Reaper and Scott knew it was Anubis emerging. He sighed with relief as the Reaper now began tilting on its x axis. But then Anubis made a wide arc and headed for the Reaper’s right side.

_“Reyes, what are you doing?”_ Scott asked through their SAM connection.

_“My job, Pathfinder.”_

“All Squadrons, engage!” Scott barked through the comms as Anubis broke through the hull and entered the beast again.

Every ship began to fire.

_“Ground crews all reporting ready!”_ Sara’s voice was clipped and choppy as it came through the kett speakers. _“Bring her down and we’ll finish her off!”_

And down the Reaper began to come. Here and there cracks appeared in the hull and the blue glow from within told Scott that Anubis was indeed doing his job.

Then without warning, he both heard and felt something give internally, and knew innately it’d come through Reyes’ SAM channel. “SAM!” he shouted into the cockpit, startling his companions.

“Scott, it appears as though an internal defense mechanism of some sort has immobilized Anubis within the Reaper ship.”

“Can he get out of it?”

“It does not appear that he can. He is attempting to keep his incinerative degree leveled. That is his primary focus.”

“What? Why would he be doing that instead of trying to break free?” Scott asked.

“If he does not maintain the exact temperature he is currently operating at, the internal fires which are currently turning portions of the Reaper into ash will eventually do the same to him.”

“Wait,” Harry said, coming to stand next to the copilot’s chair. “Are you telling us that Reyes could be incinerated by his own…magic?” The word tasted foreign to everyone, but they’d all seen enough to know this wasn’t simple biotics, unfettered or no.

“If he does not match its intensity,” SAM replied, his voice subdued, “then yes.”

Scott punched the button on the panel before him that unlocked the shuttle’s side door. He rose to his feet and pushed past Harry as he put his helmet on and listened to it hiss-seal against his armor.

“You can’t go in there, Scott!” Harry protested, grabbing the man’s bicep and whirling him around. “You’ll burn up the moment you’re within spitting distance!”

“I’ve been practicing with SAM,” Scott countered, pulling away. “Just watch. You’ll see.” He stood at the side door. “Jaal, I need you to get me as close to that latest hole Anubis blasted through the hull as you possibly can.”

“Ryder, I agree with Harry. This is…are you certain of your actions?”

“I am.”

“You _are_ insane,” Gil breathed.

“No. I’m prepared,” Scott countered. “I wasn’t about to leave him behind if it came to it and I dare you to stop me, anyway.” When no one said a word, Ryder barked, “SAM, engage Profile Redfire.”

“Profile Redfire engaged.” A small red shield shimmered into existence next to his right shoulder. Its icon was white fire. “Scott, this has not been tested beyond a few ruins—”

“Enough with everyone trying to talk me out of it!” Scott snapped. “There isn’t a world in which I’m letting that man die without even _trying_ to save him!”

“But what if you die, too?” Harry shouted back.

Scott met his eyes. “Then I die, too. You don’t seem to understand. None of you do.” He shook his head. “I would _rather_ die than lose what we have, and I mean that with every fiber of my being. I have made Heleus livable for everyone who came from the Milky Way. My sister is now officially a Pathfinder, and all the other races are represented by their own pathfinders. If you had an opportunity to save the person you are meant to be with forever, would you not give it everything you had?”

Harry’s eyes bore an understanding that Scott felt like he needed to ask about someday if he and Reyes made it out of this alive.

“Yeah,” Gil whispered with a nod. “Yeah, okay.”

“We’re always with you,” Jaal confirmed. “Just…be careful. I don’t want to be the one to tell Sara she’s the only Ryder left.”

“You won’t have to.”

Jaal suddenly turned back to face the control panel as an insistent beeping caught his attention. He frowned. “Scott, Anubis’s last entry point is now viably distanced from the shuttle, but it’s a moving target as the Reaper lists further.”

“Thanks, Jaal,” Scott said quietly. “We’ll come through this okay. And on the off chance we don’t, you already have another Ryder waiting in the wings. For the record, I officially name Sara Ryder as my successor. SAM, transfer all command protocols the moment I leave this shuttle, and switch yourself to Sara’s implant as main base of operations in case incineration happens too quickly for you to initiate.”

A few seconds of silence and then SAM replied, “Actions completed. Good luck, Scott.”

“Thank you. Jaal, open the door.”

The angaran man hesitated only a moment before pressing the appropriate button. He swung the shuttle around so Scott was facing Reyes’ last entry point through the Reaper hull.

Scott looked at Gil, whose eyes were wet. At Harry, who just stared at him in utter disbelief. At Jaal, whose face bore the silent promise that Sara would indeed be looked after. He nodded, smiled at them, whispered, “I love you guys. Make sure Sara knows I love her, too,” and then turned and launched himself into the vacuum of space.


End file.
